MAN ON A MISSION
How Panyaza Lesufi wants to transform education
● I am more than 30 minutes late for my interview with Andrek Panyaza Lesufi at his office at 17 Simmonds Street in central Johannesburg.
But he is unfazed by my late arrival.
Sitting at his computer, the education MEC for Gauteng gives me a firm handshake, uttering his trademark line “I will be fine one day” when I ask about his health.
Unlike the luxurious offices occupied by most of his peers, his is fairly modest.
Perhaps it’s because of the stringent budget cuts his department has had to make.
It needs almost R800 000 to balance its books until April.
“That’s why we can’t offer you CocaCola,” he says, breaking into laughter. “Here we have cut down on those nice things. There’s no Christmas party; we’ve never had a Christmas party.”
Our conversation is punctuated by the odd joke, but there is no escaping the fact that Lesufi, 49, is deadly serious about his mission to transform education in the province.
It’s a mission that started with his student activism during apartheid and continued when he was Basic Education Minister
Angie Motshekga’s most trusted lieutenant as national spokesman for her department.
While the other eight education MECs largely escaped the glare of public scrutiny last year, Lesufi had his hands full as his department dealt with one controversy after another.
There was, for example, the backlash by some coloured parents after the appointment of black principals at their children’s schools, and the fight to stop the exclusion of pupils from well-resourced schools because of school feeder zone regulations.
Then there were the myriad sex scandals at schools that made headlines.
A former assistant water polo coach at the prestigious Parktown Boys’ High School is facing 160 charges, including 93 counts of sexual assault, and a scholar patroller at AB Xuma Primary in Soweto allegedly sexually assaulted 87 girls.
Feeder zones
But by far the biggest challenge for Lesufi has been the thorny issue of determining school feeder zones.
He was ecstatic when the Constitutional Court ruled that the MEC had the final say over pupil admission at schools.
In a Facebook comment, he wrote: “We WON! Thanks, ConCourt, today we finally broke the backbone of apartheid planning.”
The Constitutional Court ordered him to determine feeder zones in consultation with all schools by November this year, which is proving to be a mammoth task for the department.
In terms of the current school admission regulations, pupils living within a 5km radius of a school have a right to attend that school.
But Lesufi has proposed that that be increased to 30km.
“It basically means a child in Soweto will no longer be restricted to apply for admission only at schools in Soweto.”
Steps to sort out feeder zones include finalising legislative amendments to determine feeder zones, determining feeder zones for each school and allowing schools to comment on them.
Closely associated with this problem is the issue of 31 000 pupils, mostly in Grade 1 and Grade 8, who have not yet been allocated a place at school this year.
“Those who say ‘MEC, place me where there is space’, we will place them. But those who say ‘I want my child at Jeppe Boys and nowhere else’, if Jeppe Boys is full, there’s nothing we can do.”
He waxed lyrical about the benefits of the online registration process, which, according to him, has now been embraced by everyone.
The idea of the online registration system was born when Lesufi himself, like thousands of other parents, had to wake up early one morning in 2015 to join the queue at a Johannesburg school to apply for admission for his child.
“We now know who has applied. We know the schools that are overflowing and those that have under-enrolled and we can fix those problems, unlike before when we were working in the dark.”
Previously they did not know which schools were full and which were not, because that information was with the schools and not the department.
“Our view in Gauteng is that we’d rather have an overflowing class than a learner who is at home.
“So that’s been our approach and we will do everything to ensure they are accommodated,” he says.
Lesufi admits his comments and his unwavering support for the Basic
Education Laws
Amendment Bill —
It basically means a child in Soweto will no longer be restricted to apply for admission only at schools in Soweto We need to standardise the exams so there’s no exam that is seen as inferior. In the current state of affairs, people believe the IEB is superior. Those who write the IEB are perceived to be good
I really believe that only those people whom I term as the haters of transformation will not agree with the changes
which will, among other things, curtail the powers of governing bodies if it becomes law — “created lots of enemies”.
One of the controversial amendments is that the powers of governing bodies will be limited in making appointments. They will, however, continue to be able to recommend the appointment of teachers.
The bill, proposes that governing bodies may no longer recommend the names of candidates for the posts of heads of departments, deputy principals and principals. If it becomes law, these powers will be the sole responsibility of provincial education departments.
“We will argue to the bitter end that those powers lie with government rather than with school governing bodies.”
Commenting on the abuse he suffered, he says it has been mostly “social media bullying”, adding: “You go to my social network, the insults are heavy there.”
Critics lambasted him for a piece he wrote welcoming the amendments.
“They have been published for debate. If you speak of overcrowding, the problem is at township schools.
“Who pays the price of not getting quality education? It’s the township schools. I really believe that only those people whom I term as the haters of transformation will not agree with the changes.”
When I suggested that he must surely be immune to the insults by now, his response is: “I am vulgar proof.” (He’s evidently not afraid to give his opinion, even if it might not be popular. He reportedly told this story of his time as Motshekga’s spokesman: “In that role, even when I felt the minister was clumsily dressed and no one else would face her, I would tell her: ‘Take off those pantihose. They look ugly on you.’ ”)
An issue that gave Lesufi a major headache last year was the refusal by coloured parents of pupils attending Klipspruit West High and Noordgesig Primary in Soweto to accept the appointment of black African principals.
“We are engaging with parents at Noordgesig. We have appointed a principal who is now not welcome. The school must be ready at the beginning of the year. They must get textbooks and new teachers. But there’s no principal, so they will start the academic year late.”
Money problems have forced Lesufi to postpone the placement of a “massive” number of newly promoted principals from January to April when the new financial year begins.
Normally, the principals would have started their new jobs this month.
This drastic measure saved the department R200-million in salaries.
Budget cuts also forced the department to hire only 500 new teachers this year instead of the 5 000 which the system needed.
His department employed 61 864 teachers last year.
Lesufi said the 500 additional teachers would ensure there was a teacher in every classroom, adding: “The problem will be that instead of a teacher teaching 40 learners, that teacher will be teaching, say, 50 learners.”
The projected teacher-pupil ratio for this year is 1:40 in primary schools and 1:36 in secondary schools.
Other austerity measures have resulted in overtime being cut and all office-based posts being frozen. This includes the appointment of new subject advisers.
Lesufi’s department requested R197-million in additional money from the National Treasury, but was given only R150-million.
“It’s a massive challenge. Sometimes you try and console yourself that you’re not alone. We need almost R1-billion — the department of health [in Gauteng] needs R6-billion.”
Lesufi is also planning to crack down on the incidence of rape and sexual assault of pupils at schools by having all newly appointed teachers, security guards, bus drivers and food handlers vetted.
“We will be the first province to do that. It will cost roughly R2 500 to vet one person, but the plan is to vet all new appointments,” he says.
Commenting on cases of sexual assault and rape that plagued several schools last year, he says the department had to convene urgent meetings with principals and school governing bodies “to assist us to arrest the situation”.
He adds: “It has been a major, major challenge, but I’m quite excited that we have overhauled all our systems of reporting appointments so that we get the right people to be within our school premises.
“Currently we couldn’t even account if a person was fit and proper to be in front of our learners, but I think the situation is under control.”
Another problem that Lesufi is wrestling with is “persuading” schools named after apartheid heroes to change their names.
“Are you comfortable having your child attend a school called Hendrik Verwoerd? I’m not. We have given schools the right to recommend to us if they want to change their names. Some have done; others are rigid.”
Although Lesufi gave schools an ultimatum until September last year to change offensive or derogatory names, he admits that the department “did not have a legal standing” to force them to change their name.
“So it’s persuasion. We are at that stage now of persuading those with problematic names [to change them].”
Twinning
He speaks proudly about one of his pet projects, the twinning of schools, which involves a partnership between a wellresourced school and a township school so that resources can be shared.
“It’s to bury the backbone of apartheid. It’s also to discourage this mobility where people believe that good education is in the suburbs.”
One of the most successful twinning arrangements has been Lyndhurst Primary in Johannesburg partnering with Bovet Primary in Alexandra.
“They share facilities; they share teacher training. They have one soccer and one netball team when they play. They have taken it to the limit.”
Commenting on the recent release of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, in which South African pupils fared the worst out of 60 countries, he says: “Yes, it’s disappointing we are No 60. But I’m saying we are among the top 60 in the world.”
Lesufi says only three countries from Africa participated in the study: South
Africa, Morocco and Egypt.
The MEC has also thrown his weight behind moves to have a single matric exam for the country.
At the moment, many pupils at private schools write exams set by the Independent Examination Board whereas pupils in public schools write the national senior certificate.
“We need to standardise the exams so there’s no exam that is seen as inferior. In the current state of affairs, people believe the IEB is superior. Those who write the IEB are perceived to be good and they are automatically given spaces [at university]. Others must then compete for the remaining spaces.”
One of his highlights has been the recent opening of the R250-million Nokuthula Centre and Special School in Lyndhurst for pupils with special educational needs.
“It’s beyond state of the art,” he says. He may have his detractors, but Lesufi also has hordes of supporters.
After the unveiling of the latest smart school, Seshegong Secondary, in Olievenhoutbosch, Pretoria, recently, one of his followers tweeted: “Sir Panyaza, can you be a minister of education already.”