Diplomats sue state over US school fees
TWO diplomats at South Africa’s UN mission in New York City have gone to court to force the government to continue paying their children’s privateschool fees.
The move by Raymond Nyembe, economics counsellor at the mission, and Mmalebone Mmekoe, first secretary responsible for administration, may spark a similar revolt by diplomats in other countries.
The Department of International Relations recently cut its financial support for school fees in a bid to save money.
Papers filed in the High Court in Pretoria reveal that 34 children of 17 officials in New York City cost South African taxpayers just over $1-million (about R16-million) a year.
Nyembe said in an affidavit that the sudden cuts, implemented without consulting affected diplomats, were “not only unfair but contrary to the already existing budget of the mission”.
“We have been transferred to this mission with the knowledge that we have children and such children should have a right to basic education,” he said.
“The decision to arbitrarily terminate the school allowance amounts to depriving our children [of] the very basic right to education.”
Nyembe said he had been forced to take his children out of school because he could not afford the fees. He owes $66 018 to the UN International School that two of his children attended.
“At present I cannot explain to my children as to why they are not going to school,” he said. The case will be heard in May. Nyembe earlier complained in an email to International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane that “the situation has become very traumatic for our children. We hope it will not affect them academically as they are already troubled psychologically.”
The diplomats refuse to send their children to free public schools in Manhattan. Nyembe said they were “not well-equipped to accommodate children from other countries” and “gangs, drugs and prostitution” were rife.
Nyembe and Mmekoe have the support of South Africa’s UN ambassador, Kingsley Mamabolo.
In a letter asking the department’s director-general, Jerry Matjila, to reconsider the funding cuts, Mamabolo said “the reputation of gangs, drugs and prostitution in these schools is a very real concern”.
New York could not be regarded as an English-speaking foreign city like any other, he said.
“Spanish is effectively recognised as a second language whilst other languages such as Italian, Mandarin, Korean and Russian prevail in distinctive districts. Compelling children to attend only public schools in Manhattan is effectively depriving those children of all credible options for schooling.”
Nyembe attached press clippings to his application that paint a lurid picture of Manhattan public schools as dens of iniquity. One article listed “11 reasons to get your kids out of the government schools”. The standard of education was poor, children were
exposed to “rampant sexual promiscuity”, teachers had sex with students, and “your children could end up dead”, the article said.
Nyembe also complained that the policy was being applied selectively because the government was paying school fees for the children of Mamabolo and consul-general Thulisile Mathula Nkosi.
Last year, the Sunday Times reported that South Africa spent R3.2-billion a year on its 126 diplomatic missions around the world. Salaries accounted for R1.9-billion.
In a budget review last year, the National Treasury warned it was spending too much on salaries and “generous allowances” for diplomats and instructed Nkoana-Mashabane’s department to slash its foreign mission budget.
In responding papers, the department’s chief financial officer, Caiphus Ramashau, said it was a mistake from the beginning to pay school fees for diplomats in English-speaking countries because this was against government policy.
“There is nothing preventing an official from sending her child to a private school if she is willing to pay for such a school,” he said.
School fees for the children of Mamabolo and Nkosi were being paid because “both their parents are resident in official residences owned by the South African government by virtue of their respective positions”.
Department spokesman Nelson Kgwete said benefits had been reviewed “to see which ones we can cut. Our diplomats must start tightening their belts. Our economy has taken a knock. We must learn to do more with less.”
Kgwete said cutting privateschool fees was a big saving.