Twenty four years into our democracy, the plight of the poor seems to be ignored. Honourable Chair, up to this day there are currently 8 million learners who attend dysfunctional schools.
So as I stand here one would ask: “what do learners, parents and South Africans expect from this basic education budget vote?”
Our attention must clearly be on sanitation, which has been highlighted by incidents like the drowning of Michael Komape, who fell into a pit toilet in 2014 in Limpopo and Lumka Mketwa, who also fell into a pit toilet that was supposed to be decommissioned in the Eastern Cape.
The death of Lumka Mketha teaches us that if you don’t learn from the past, history has a way of repeating itself. Michael Komape’s death should have been a wake-up call that such tragedies must not happen in our country again.
According to the latest statistics on sanitation from the Department of Basic Education:
- South Africa still has 3 533 school pit toilets to be decommissioned;
- 25 schools have no sanitation in the Eastern Cape;
- We have toilets without any water connection, even when water is available elsewhere on school premises as we saw at Isisusa Secondary School in KwaZulu-Natal; and
- There are 30 000 outstanding Grade R toilet seats to that are needed for primary schools.
And that will cost about R7.8 billion – almost the same amount that the national Treasury has astoundingly cut the school infrastructure budget by.
The poor performance of the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) programme is not helping.
The Department of Basic Education was unable to meet a single target:
- Out of a targeted 59 schools, only 16 were built;
- Out of a targeted 265, a mere 10 were provided with sanitation;
- Out of a target of 280, just 10 were connected to water; and
- Out of a targeted 620, zero schools were connected to electricity.
And even with funding, the Eastern Cape mismanaged their building process – no doubt a justification for
the downsizing of the budget. This is not progress!
Provinces are also facing major budget cuts – with competing priorities making it hard to balance infrastructure needs with other serious difficulties our learners face, like those in Ukuthula, KwaZuluNatal, who have to walk 10km to school every day. This is why Treasury needs to allocate direct grants for items like school transport – to take the pressure off of our provincial budgets.
I am sorry to say, Chairperson, this budget falls short of our expectations. We seem to be making it harder and harder for South African children to get a proper education and improve their future.
As the Democratic Alliance, we will continue to highlight the plight of poor learners in this country. We will go to every corner of this country to raise the indignities of pit toilets and improper infrastructure.
Maladministration and budget cuts are a crime against our learners – it is time the ANC government stands up for the rights of learners, instead of lining the pockets of the wealthy.