When the SGB is a convenient scapegoat

I READ your article on page 21 by Castro Ngobese on student rejections and was blown away by the ignorance.

The Overvaal issue could have been resolved quite easily.

The rest you elaborated on is absolute hogwash.

If the 386 schools had been built over the last 10 years there would have been adequate facilities and resources, and the government would have discharged its duty in terms of the constitution.

The above would have been discharged in terms of Section 3(3) of the Schools Act, where the NEC is under obligation to “secure enough school places.”

That would have been the remedy.

The other remedy would have been to withdraw the headmaster and the SGB’S function, and implement the following:

Commit the MEC to contribute an additional R3.2 million for school teachers and an extra R480 000 for more mobile classrooms.

This would have been lawful.

In cases such as Ermelo, Welkom and Rivonia, the unlawfulness speaks for itself.

From the above it is clear that the government has failed in its fiduciary obligations and I fail to see why the media, which you represent, always duck this fact.

The only way not to discover this is to use the race card and look for an escape.

Please take cognisance that, where there is dereliction of duty, there always has to be a scapegoat: hence the SGB.

HECTOR VAN HEERDEN via e-mail