Cape Town - They say one man’s loss is another man’s gain – and the truism bears relevance to a loss for schoolchildren in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga and a gain for those in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
Treasury has re-routed a significant portion of the struggling Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga education departments’ conditional grants – combined at R411m – to the better-off Western Cape and Gauteng education departments.
This means the money for infrastructure-related needs of the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga schools will be forfeited as their officials failed to spend the money on time.
Thank you very much, Gauteng and the Western Cape will say, graciously, as the former receives a re-allocation of R296.4m and Western Cape Education Department (WCED) R115.4m.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana confirmed this in a recent gazette.
The R100m infrastructure grant which could have eradicated mud schools and pit latrines, among a litany of other issues plaguing schools in the Eastern Cape, is now in the coffers of the WCED.
In an explanatory memorandum attached to the gazette, Godongwana cited sections 18 and 19 of the Division of Revenue Act, 2022, for Department of Basic Education (DBE) “stopping” and “re-allocating” the education departments of Eastern Cape’s R100 million and Mpumalanga’s R311 million school infrastructure budgets.
Conditional grants have to be used for specific purposes timeously.
Education MEC David Maynier said: “The transfer relates to the Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG). We have received the funds, and will use this for infrastructure needs.”
ActionSA Eastern Cape provincial chairperson Athol Trollip said construction of proper school buildings, which started in 2017, after an approved budget of R58m, was abandoned in 2018 with non-payment of appointed contractors being one of the reasons for the discontinuation of construction work.
Eastern Cape schools generally fail to meet the minimum infrastructure standards for public schools as prescribed by the SA Schools Act 84 of 1996.
Trollip said: “The minimum norms and standards for public school infrastructure includes basics such as decent toilets, sufficient electricity and water supply, access to the internet, libraries, sports facilities and laboratories.
“The Eastern Cape has over 5 200 schools, 3000 of which are without adequate sanitation and with over 1 000 schools still using pit latrine toilets.
“It is evident that the Eastern Cape Education Department’s lack of proper financial management and planning is of no concern to Premier (Oscar) Mabuyane, despite its adverse effect on the quality of education enjoyed by the province’s pupils.”
He said ActionSA reiterated that the right to basic education was enshrined in the country’s Constitution and that includes learners’ rights to access textbooks, transport, adequate teaching and infrastructure.