Crisis in Political Leadership?

For quite a number of years the Department of education in the province of the Eastern Cape has not been stable. This department has been beset by a variety of problems ranging from scholar transport, service providers, non-delivery of stationery and textbooks for Section 20 schools, school nutrition and redeployment of teachers.

It has to be noted that at the helm of the Department itself there has been no stability both politically and administratively. It is difficult to count the number of times the MECs for education and their Superintendent-Generals have been changed in this province. At some point the National government revoked Section 100 of the Constitution of the Republic and intervened in an attempt to salvage the situation.

Currently there is a stalemate between the major teacher union, SADTU, in the province and the Department’s Superintendent-General by the name of Adv. Modidima Manya. The bone of contention is the dismissal of more than 4 000 temporary educators, Manya’s continued suspension of teachers and senior officials of the department and the redeployment of educators. The political heads of the province led by the Premier Noxolo Kiviet are adamant that Manya cannot just be dismissed without following due process, and according to them there is nothing that warrants his dismissal. On the other hand the teacher union maintains that there can be no conducive teaching and learning in the province under the leadership of Advocate Manya.   

At the moment there is a pending court case on the issue of redeployment, and SADTU claims that the Department is implementing the process unilaterally and as a result this process if it carried on in the current form, it would leave many schools not being able to function.  

This past week several talks were held between labour, the ANC and the Provincial government. Labour was led by COSATU General Secretary, Mr Vavi. From those deliberations a Record of Understanding was arrived at between the contending parties. It is understood that all the parties agreed that there is a problem in the Eastern Cape Department of Education, and Advocate Manya was the cause of the problem. It was also agreed that it was wrong to dismiss the temporary teachers because their services are needed. Furthermore it was found that redeployment cannot continue under the current format, since no identification of excess educators was done by schools.

Given this Record of Understanding the Provincial government has not come up with a viable strategy to solve the current impasse which is destabilising teaching and learning in our schools. Why the so-called record of understanding not being transformed into a legally binding resolution of the problem? For how long must the learners from township and rural schools suffer before the Provincial government deems it fit to find a lasting solution to the problems of the Eastern Cape education?