The ANC has not done enough to improve the quality of education in the country, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said on Saturday.
“Today's black children are still doomed to be 'hewers of wood and drawers of water' who cannot read or write,” he said at a Youth Day rally in Mthatha, Eastern Cape.
Holomisa said that throughout the African National Congress 's time in power, black schools lacked basic infrastructure and were still under-resourced.
He said the funds and resources that should have been spent on educating the youth, creating jobs and combating poverty were routed to the “ANC's party coffers and the pockets of the privileged few”.
“Maybe the fault lies in every new Education Minister who brings a different policy and we start from scratch every five years.”
He encouraged the youth not to allow “corrupt government officials” to steal their future.
“You have the power to change things by changing people's minds and showing them the truth,” he said.
“Just as the youth of 1976 you must go out and show a corrupt government that you are more that just hewers of wood and drawers of water”. - Sapa