The FF Plus voted against the adjustment budget for Basic Education on 4 December 2019. The main reason is that the R40 million that was earmarked for water and sanitation for schools was not spent.
It is but a small percentage of the approximately R12,5 billion budget for school infrastructure, but if one considers the performance in this regard, it paints a somber picture.
According to the budget, the aim was to build 59 new schools but only nine were indeed built. Of the 717 schools that were supposed to be provided with sanitation, a mere 63 were and only 52 out of the projected 227 schools were provided with water infrastructure.
That is the poor performance achieved after three quarters of the financial year. It raises the question of how many of these objectives can be achieved in the last quarter.
Infrastructure projects require a lot of knowledge and skills and cannot be neglected. The quality of education and the dignity of our communities depend on it. And in the meantime, government policies are creating an artificial shortage of skills by enforcing rigid racial targets on all levels.
In the FF Plus’s view, whether the Department is willing to do away with these targets is not a question of political opportunism, but rather the dignity of communities.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Dr. Wynand Boshoff on FF Plus
South Africa Today – South Africa News
