Today (7 October 2015) EE members in Limpopo will be picketing the Limpopo Education Department in demand of the provinces Norms and Standards implementation plans that were meant to be published along with other provincial plans on the 12th of June this year. What Limpopo has published thus far is not a plan but rather a User-Asset Management document. The Minimum Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure established a legally binding commitment on every province to provide the Minister with their implementation plans by 29 Nov 2014.
We have already written to the Limpopo Education Department 3 times this year asking them to publish their plans as required by the regulations. The DBE is also aware that Limpopo has not published their plans and still nothing has been done.
We have already raised our concerns in general about all the provincial implementation plans published thus far, we brought this to a public light in a press statement two weeks ago. One of our concerns is that the delay in the release of the provincial plans hampered community and civil society efforts to assess whether schools have been correctly catered for in accordance with the Norms and Standards requirements. With only 15 months left until the end of the first delivery time frame, we are worried about whether delivery will be timeous and accurate. The longer the Limpopo Education Department delays the plans, the harder it becomes to rectify any serious mistakes in those plans.
Limpopo is also the province where Michael Komape died a horrible and unfortunate death after falling into a dilapidated pit latrine in his school. Michael Komape’s story is the story of many other learners who have to relieve themselves in unsafe pit latrines at their schools. The Norms and Standards Regulations can only work to assist the conditions of schools like Michael Komape’s schools if there is a clear plan on how the work will be done. In the absence of the Norms and Standards plans the Limpopo Education Department cannot claim to have formulated a strategy to rid the province of unsafe school infrastructure. The more there is a delay in fixing school infrastructure, the bigger the risk of seeing yet another learner drown in a pit latrine
The picket details are as follows:
Place of gathering: Limpopo Education department (DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION BUILDING, CNR 113 BICCARD & 24 EXCELSIOR STREET, POLOKWANE NORTH, LIMPOPO PROVINCE, ZA)
Gathering time: 12pm
Presenting memorandum: 13pm to the MEC of Education in the province.
For more information contact:
Luyolo Mazwembe (National Organiser)
073 475 7921
Tshepo Motsepe (EE General Secretary)
071 886 5637
Nombulelo Nyathela (EE Spokesperson)
060 503 4933
