The African National Congress (ANC) is now taking steps to take the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to court concerning the number of unplaced learners in the province. They are doing this in partnership with the Parents for Equal Education SA (Peesa) group.
Schools are already in the middle of their second term in the 2021 school year and the political party alleges that a high number of learners still remain unplaced in the Western Cape.
The ANC in the province has filed a case in the constitutional court on a number of allegations against the WCED. The department received the papers on Tuesday.
WCED MEC, Debbie Schafer, responded saying that all learners who were unplaced, are now placed and the number changes day to day.
We completely reject those allegations.
One reason Schafer provides for unplaced learners is that there are constantly learners migrating from province to province and they then need to placed in schools saying, "Over the last number of years, we've seen a huge and consistent increase of around 20 000 learners coming per year to the Western Cape which needs additional schools".
With funding constraints and re-allocations of funds, the department is then not able to afford to expand the school system.
The Portfolio Committee is said to also be satisfied with the current state of learners in the Western Cape.
Schafer believes that the allegations aren't in line with the right intent saying:
The ANC hasn't taken us to court actually because they're aren't party to the action at all ... they unfortunately choose instead to use innocent community members as the applicants to ensure they avoid liability for costs in the event that they lose.
The MEC then said that there are issues but that these are due to funding constraints which is actually a result of the ANC and theft.
She continued to say, "The papers do make allegations that are extremely personal and vindictive and this shares what the actual motive is: it's a complete political opportunism of the worst kind and it's setting a really low bar."
