Cape Town - Amid the controversy over the legality of extending the contract of Western Cape Education Department (WCED) head Brian Schreuder, the department announced the appointment of Brent Walters as its superintendent-general to replace Schreuder in April next year.
Walters, 56, who matriculated at Livingstone High School, has served as the head of department (HOD) for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS) for the past decade.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said: “Walters is no stranger to the education sector.
“As a prime example of the WCED motto of ‘Enter to learn, leave to serve’, he returned to the high school he matriculated from to serve as a teacher and, later, head of department in Mathematics.
Schäfer said he had since held a number of senior management positions in the Department of the Premier, Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and then department of sport and recreation before being appointed as the HOD of DCAS.
Walters holds a Master of Philosophy degree in education and a higher diploma in education from UCT, which he completed after being awarded a BSc (Hons).
Walters said the transition period would be dedicated to ensuring a smooth handover.
“I will be looking to ensure holistic child development to equip pupils with the tools to contribute effectively to our society through quality learning, teacher capacitation, creating a suitable enabling environment and seeing how best the system can support both pupils and teachers to meet these needs,” he said.
.ANC provincial spokesperson on Education Khalid Sayed said Walters was an experienced and highly capable government official with integrity, who understood the education space and had interlinked with it in his capacity as sports HOD.
Sayed said, more crucially, Walters was a teacher and principal who had attended Livingstone High School, which was one of the schools which provided pupils with ideological clarity in the anti-apartheid Struggle.
“His activism as a youth also sets a good background in terms of understanding our apartheid legacy in education that needs to be addressed. While we are not attacking Schreuder, we will continue to take the fight to the premier around his contract,” he said.
Earlier this week, Premier Alan Winde’s spokesperson Bianca Capazorio said in light of the differing and mutually destructive views of the Public Service Commission and the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) on the matter, Winde requested that the director, general Harry Malila write to the DPSA to initiate a process of consultation.
Capazario said Malila had done that, and once the DPSA had finalised its internal deliberations, they would have more clarity on the next steps.
Cape Argus