Lusikisiki Village Clinic serves up to 7000 people a month in Qaukeni sub district in the Eastern Cape. The clinic had been operating out of a building in the centre of Lusikisiki since 2005. In January 2013, the Eastern Cape Department of Health moved the clinic out of the building and reopened it in an empty plot on the outskirts of town with a park home and two tents now intended to house the clinic.
On 7 February 2013 TAC and SECTION27 visited the new Village Clinic after hearing terrible stories from patients and! health care workers at the clinic. What we found is a disgrace and violation of patients and workers rights. Read the report here.
The judgment of the Eastern Cape High Court, handed down on 3rd August 2012, is a groundbreaking vindication of the state’s duties to ensure children have a basic education.
SECTION27 salutes the Centre for Child Law, a number of School Governing Bodies from schools in the Eastern Cape and their legal team, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), for this important victory for the rights of learners to learn and teachers to teach.
On Friday 3 August, the Eastern Cape High Court in Grahamstown ruled that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) is obliged to declare post establishments for both teaching and non-teaching staff for 2013 for public schools in the Eastern Cape.
Yesterday SECTION27 received the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) progress report on the implementation of the catch-up plan (this and the catch-up plan are attached). While we are still studying and seeking expert input on the catch-up plan, we believe that it is inadequate and a clear violation of both the 17 May order of court and the settlement agreement between SECTION27 and the DBE which was made an order of court on 26 June.
SECTION27 has noted various unfortunate statements on the text book crisis in Limpopo as well as attack on the legal action of SECTION27 and comments by COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi. Below we set out the facts about how this crisis has unfolded in the last seven months.
We believe there has been a collective failure of many organisations that represent the poor, including COSATU, SADTU, the churches, the ANC, school governing bodies, and civil society in allowing an educational crisis, such as that in Limpopo (and other parts of the country) to develop over months and years.
The most important lesson of the Limpopo text book crisis is a reminder of the need for ongoing monitoring and action to protect and advance the rights of the poor and vulnerable in South Africa, in this case learners.
SECTION27 and the Department of Basic Education released the ‘verification report’ into the delivery of textbooks to learners in grades 1-3 and grade 10 in Limpopo Schools.We thank Professor Metcalfe and her team. Not only have they done a great amount of work in the last two weeks, but they have made a personal sacrifice out of a commitment to the right to basic education.
SECTION27’s intention is not to vilify any particular person. However, we maintain our position that once the National Executive (Cabinet) decided to intervene in Limpopo under s100(1)(b) of the Constitution they assumed, through the DBE, full responsibility for meeting minimum standards for the delivery of basic education services within the Province.
SECTION27 together with the Department of Basic Education will release the report on the verification of textbook delivery in Limpopo conducted by Professor Mary Metcalfe and her verification team at 12h45 today, Monday 16th July, at SECTION27’s offices: 6th Floor, Braamfontein Centre, 23 Jorissen Street, Braamfontein.
REPORT ON LIMPOPO TEXTBOOKS VERIFICATION TEAM TO BE MADE PUBLIC ON 16 JULY 2012 This afternoon SECTION27 and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) met with Prof Mary Metcalfe to receive a report back on the findings of the independent verification team working in Limpopo for the past two weeks. Continue Reading
Today was meant to be the day that the vital hearing of the case on teacher post provisioning would be heard in the Eastern Cape High Court, Grahamstown. Hundreds of thousands of learners’ education depends on a positive outcome to this case, and a finding as to whether the provincial and national government have violated their rights.
However, once again the Minister of Basic Education and her department treated the court, and all the parties before the court, with contempt.
Today a crucial case is being heard in the Eastern Cape High Court (Grahamstown) that has been brought by the Centre for Child Law and five school governing bodies, represented by the Legal Resources Centre. The case concerns the unequal and unfair distribution of teachers to schools in the province and the failure of the Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education (ECDBE) to implement their own ‘post provisioning plan’ for 2012. A post provisioning plan is a plan to ensure that there is a fair distribution of teachers to all schools in the province and that schools have the teachers (and other staff) that they require to provide basic education.
On 12 July 2012, the Eastern Cape High Court will hear an application brought by the Legal Resources Centre on behalf of the Centre for Child Law and the governing bodies of five schools in the Eastern Cape Province. The application relates to the failure by the Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education and the National Department of Basic Education to implement the 2012 post establishment in public schools in the Eastern Cape. SECTION27, acting on behalf of the National Association of School Governing Bodies, has applied for leave to intervene as amicus curiae in this application. The focus of our intervention is the obligations arising from the National Department’s intervention in the Provincial Department in terms of section 100(1)(b) of the Constitution, following failed attempts at collaboration and co-operation with the Provincial Department.