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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape has great concerns about the lack of commitment to service delivery within the Department of Education, as well as their lack of accountability and reporting. We will request regular briefings from the Northern Cape Department of Education in conjunction with the Office of the Premier to the Portfolio Committee on Education, Sport, Arts & Culture. It is necessary for the provincial government to be more transparent about the provincial state of school readiness ahead of the proposed return of more learners in the coming days.

Our request comes after worrying information came to light which casts a shadow of doubt over the availability of some schools to provide a safe environment for learners or staff.

Firstly, the Francois Visser Primary School in Pofadder near Springbok still struggles with vandalized electricity boards (see pic here). The boards were damaged during 2017, which resulted in half of the school receiving no electricity supply at all.

The Kakamas High School in Kakamas experiences similar constraints due to vandalism which had occurred early 2019, long before lockdown. The electricity switchboards are among the physical infrastructure that was targeted and badly damaged (see pics hereand here).

At both schools, it seems that the live cables are exposed. The damaged switchboards are not cordoned off and clearly pose a significant risk to the safety of the school community and any visitor.

Both cases had been reported to the regional offices, as well as the MEC for Education, Mac Jack, and yet the department has not seen fit to fix the problems. School Management Teams are following protocol, but the department is dragging their feet in meeting safety requirements. This beggars belief, especially when one considers the promises made by the department about the number of infrastructure projects that will be undertaken to fix problems prior to the return of learners, and must be addressed with the merited concern of the school community.

In the circumstances, the Portfolio Committee must step up and sharpen up our oversight role. If the department cannot be bothered to protect the basic safety of our school communities, the responsible parties must be taken to task.

Issued by The DA