Cape Town -
The ANC in the Western Cape says it won’t take Education MEC Donald Grant’s decision to close 20 schools, lying down, and is seeking legal advice.
At a press conference on Tuesday provincial chairman Marius Fransman said the fight against school closures would now be escalated.
“We will invoke legal action. Those schools will not close and we will create a precedent in this country.”
Fransman said poor communities had to join hands and oppose “this unfair and unjust action”.
The ANC has demanded that all letters of closure issued be retracted within 24 hours.
Fransman said Grant’s announcement could not have come at a worse time as matrics were now preparing to start their finals. This year’s matric exams start on Monday.
“What is more telling is the fact that unviable and struggling former model C schools were not included in this irregular hunt.”
Fransman said hundreds of pupils would now have to be transported to their new schools.
The ANC said Grant’s legacy in the Western Cape would be the closure of schools against the wishes of communities.
“Clearly the department and Grant have messed up and painted themselves into a corner. It leaves no other way out but to fight fire with fire and take them on in every possible way to protect the rights of our children and these poor communities,” Fransman said.
Grant’s spokeswoman Bronagh Casey said it was no surprise that the ANC had demonstrated its inability to understand issues of education management and provision.
“They have once again reduced these issues to crude race and party politics. None of the issues highlighted by them in their statement stands up to even the most superficial interrogation.”
She said that the ANC was not only guilty of false claims, but also hypocritical, given that they closed 47 schools between 2002 and 2007, building only 42 in the same period.
“In the case of these 20 schools I believe we have made the right decisions which will produce a positive outcome for all the learners concerned. What the ANC fails to realise is that improving the opportunities of learners is not about winning votes – it is about what is in our children’s best interests…”
Cape Argus