So ineffective, we are even bad at cheating on exams

IF our elected government cannot even run state-owned enterprises effectively without billion-rand bailouts, how can we trust it to improve our lives?

Eskom, the SABC, the South African Post Office and Telkom are battling to function, provide services and keep employees happy.

The worst could be the Department of Basic Education, where even assisted mass cheating can result in only 2.4% fewer matric graduates. Such a poorly administered cheating plan causes result delays and our education system’s reputation is brought into serious question.

Ironically, the most improvement in the state-run education department was in prisoners’ matric qualifications, with about a 10% increase in matric passes. If we cannot have fair exams in some schools, imagine the mass cheating that happened in prison. Maybe a convicted felon knows how to cheat better than some other pupils do.

If we keep our present government, the failing state-owned enterprises could become SOSs that, when our nation crumbles further, we will regret not having taken notice of. — Robert Nicolai, Howick