Peter Dickson
Eastern Cape MEC for Education Stone Sizani has promised to throw the province’s farm schools a R13,9-million lifeline after being subpoenaed by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to explain his failure to fund the schools.
The HRC has issued two previous subpoenas to Sizani since late last year, but in both instances he failed to attend. This week Sizani promised to pay out the subsidies to the farm schools, at least 700 of which face imminent closure. The HRC’s intervention will restore the right to education to thousands of Eastern Cape farm school pupils, whose schooling has been threatened by the government’s non-payment of the state subsidies for three years.
Sizani told the commission his department was in a financial crisis and had so far managed to raise half of the R13,9-million to pay its contractual obligations up to June 1999. He said the department had no contractual obligations where the schools were concerned for 2000, but had set aside R10-million for the fiscal year.
The MEC told the commission the constitutional right to an education for pupils on farms was limited if there was no money. Before the hearing, Sizani went record saying there was no money for the 700 farm schools because they had not been budgeted for.
The complaint with the HRC was filed by the Eastern Cape District School Association, which has accused Sizani of ignoring farm schools.
The organisation’s chair, Emlitia Loock, who runs Middelburg’s 93-pupil Willow Primary, wrote late last month to President Thabo Mbeki to plead for his intervention in the crisis.
“The department is not worried about farm schools,” she wrote to the president. “These subsidies are not a new thing – they have been part of the budget for 20 years.
“In the old days when there used to be three education departments, each department used to have a budget for boarding, transport and payment for the hire of buildings. What has happened to that?”
Sizani told the commission that when he took over the department in June last year it faced debts outstanding since 1997.
He said, “I’m in the process of paying those debts and have had to prioritise. The top priorities were to pay the outstanding salaries of personnel, followed by paying service providers.”
Sizani asked the commission to investigate how farm schools were spending their funds, adding that the department was discussing the feasibility of rationalising some schools by bringing several together or closing several down in favour of one big school in the nearest town.
Democratic Party education representative Donald Smiles said after the hearing, “These schools need money now. Even a few days can make the difference between a school closing or being able to keep its doors open. If Mr Sizani has raised half of the money already, why isn’t he paying it over?”