Eastern Cape, Limpopo education back on track, says Motshekga

CAPE TOWN — The Limpopo and Eastern Cape education departments have stabilised after drastic interventions by the central government, which saw both departments placed under administration in 2011, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga told Parliament yesterday.

“It is not our work to run provinces … (but) I am now confident that the Eastern Cape and Limpopo can live without us.

“The provinces have stabilised. If we were asked to leave (the provinces) now, we would leave,” Ms Motshekga told MPs.

Parliament’s select committee on education and recreation also heard that the department had “stopped the bleeding” in both provinces, and that officials were working with the relevant stakeholders in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape to ensure that there was sustainability.

The move to place the two education departments under administration followed the near collapse of service delivery.

In the Eastern Cape, officials had admitted to overspending the department’s budget by a staggering R2bn. The department also came under fire from unions and parents, who demanded that it reinstate about 6,000 temporary teachers whose contracts were terminated due to lack of funds, while a lack of funds saw a schoolfeeding programme and a transport initiative grind to a halt.

In December 2011, the national government placed five Limpopo departments — treasury, public works, transport, health and education — under administration following revelations of financial mismanagement, maladministration and allegations of corruption, mainly in the award of critical tenders.

Last month Limpopo’s new premier, Stanley Mathabatha, said the National Treasury’s intervention team had succeeded in rescuing all the five departments placed under administration.

Yesterday MPs heard that the audit outcomes in the Eastern Cape had improved in the 2012-13 financial year, moving from a disclaimer, which is the worst possible outcome, to a qualified audit opinion.

“This is a major achievement that had eluded the Eastern Cape department of education since 1994,” Ms Motshekga said.

The department said budget stabilisation efforts had paid off, with underexpenditure at 2% by close of the 2012-13 financial year. Another thorny issue that was resolved was the payment of teachers, with 4,347 of the 5,195 cases submitted to the Treasury paid by the end of July.

In Limpopo, a team of technical experts was appointed by the provincial treasury to assist the department in solving problems in financial matters, in the supply chain, with assets, contracts and documents, and in human resources management, including audit process outcomes.

The department said that despite the negative reports on Limpopo’s education issues, including the textbooks debacle, the province had managed to record a 70.8% pass rate in last year’s matric examinations — the highest pass rate since 1994.