Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
The Congress of South African Students (Cosas) in the Northern Province has threatened to disrupt the already troubled provincial education system if the province’s education head does not resign by the end of this week.
Cosas says it will embark on a “militant and radical” action if Northern Province education superintendent general Harry Nengwekhulu does not heed its call to relinquish his position. Cosas has described Nengwekhulu as a “Bantustan cadre … who is hot-headed and full of himself”.
Cosas leaders say Nengwekhulu has failed to transform the province’s education system to reflect the new democratic South Africa. The student organisation also accuses Nengwekhulu of failure to deal with corporal punishment, redeployment of teachers, and delivery of textbooks and stationery.
Nengwekhulu has vowed not to resign, saying Cosas’s attack on him was orchestrated by people who wanted to oust him. Speaking from his Pietersburg headquarters, Nengwekhulu said: “If they [Cosas] go ahead with their planned militant action and disrupt the examinations they would have to account to the community.”
Senior officials from the Northern Province education MEC’s office were scheduled to meet the Cosas leadership on Thursday in a bid to iron out differences between the organisation and Nengwekhulu, amid fears that Cosas’s planned action could plunge the provincial schools into deeper crisis.
Schooling at several Northern Province schools has been disrupted in the past few weeks after students abandoned classes in protest against the education department’s failure to deliver textbooks and other pupil-support material.
“We still have schools without doors, windows, roofs, electricity and water. Many of our students are still attending under trees,” Cosas said in a media statement.
“The redeployment of teachers in this province did not take place, our teachers are not motivated because they are not sure as to whether they will continue to teach in those schools or whether they will be redeployed. We are told that the redeployment of teachers will be informed by [the] 1998 student statistics and is wrong.”
Nengwekhulu said some of Cosas’s concerns were genuine but that they were beyond his control.
“I do not understand what they want me to do because I believe that I have done what is humanly possible in this department. I was appointed to perform miracles, I am a manager and I take decisions whether they are popular or not,” Nengwekhulu said.
“I have done my job and Cosas knows that. The matric results have improved. I don’t understand why they say I must resign.”
Cosas provincial secretary Jacob Lebogo said: “Nengwekhulu does not listen. He does not understand what is happening in the classrooms. If he refuses to resign we will do what students of 1976 did against the apartheid government. We cannot afford to have a situation where one individual delays the transformation process. We are not apologetic about our stance, he must leave or we will take militant and radical action.”
Nengwekhulu conceded that his department was failing to address the shortage of classrooms, delivery of pupil-support material and managing the redeployment of teachers. He said that this was due to financial constraints.
Out of the R7-billion allocated to education by the provincial government, about 90% went into salaries, he said. “My department is effectively left with R400-million to cater for learner support material and classrooms,” he said.
Nengwekhulu said the Northern Province needs R15-billion to address the classroom backlog.
“We had to take funds from vehicles, training and unnecessary workshops to cover some of the costs. We will be able to fill about 304 principal posts now after the cost-cutting measures.”