IFP PRESS STATEMENT BY: 

MR ALFRED MPONTHSHANE MP
IFP EDUCATION SPOKESPERSON

11th June 2008

The Inkatha Freedom Party has taken note of the growing crisis in education delivery that threatens to cripple the South African education system, especially in the Eastern Cape, said Mr Alfred Mpontshane MP, today. 

Mr Mpontshane commented: "As a party we take note of the South African Democratic Teachers Union's claim that there is a virtual collapse of education delivery within the Eastern Cape, and we are gravely concerned about this crisis. 

"It confirms what the IFP has said all along - that the education system in South Africa is in a state of revolving crisis." 

Mr Mpontshane said it was time for government to own-up to the education crisis and to give it the priority and attention it deserves. 

"The Director General of Education, Mr Duncan Hindle, has admitted that the Eastern Cape's education department faces challenges, but the IFP would like to call on Mr Hindle to be forthright and to make known, as a matter of urgency, what these problems are. 

"It is noteworthy to see that the ANC President Jacob Zuma today encouraged Indian children from poor households to use education as a weapon against poverty, yet the ANC-led government has not given children in THIS country the BASIC tools to use education as a means to better their own lives."

In conclusion Mr Mpontshane said: "The Eastern Cape, like many other provinces in this country, lacks critical human and physical resources, ranging from desks to teachers. Fourteen years since the dawn of democracy it is time for government to step-up and face the problems that are threatening to plunge the education system into total collapse, as Sadtu has suggested."