GROCOTT'S MAIL NEWS ARTICLE - MOTSHEKGA'S MUDDY PROMISE

 

The news article attempts to expose Basic Eduation Minister Angie Motshekga's latest promise of eradicating all mud schools in the Eastern Cape by 2015. In 2011 she predicted that by 2014 the eradication process should be completed. But this year she announced that they will only be finished by 2015. Such promises have continuously been made by government officials since 2004, and almost a decade later they continue to do the same. Although progress has been made with the Education Department's Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Development Initiative (ASIDI), 2015 is not "realistic" according to Libode District Director of Education, Dr Soyisile Nuku. With the ASIDI programme dividing the remaining mudschools into three cohorts, it is only the second cohort that is scheduled to be completed by 2015, with the the third group of schools by 2017. Motshekga's latest promise is therefore another false sentiment by the government in terms of completing the eradication process of mud schools.

 

With Motshekga being in the forefront of news earlier this year, I felt it was appropriate to put this story on the second page of Grocott's Mail. As Motshekga is a public figure who has been heavily criticised in terms of fulfilling her post as Minister of Basic Education, this story contributes to that criticism by making the falsity of her latest promise known to the public. But because it isn't specific to Grahamstown, I decided not to put it on the front page of Grocott's, as it is a Grahamstown-based newspaper. The story, however, is relevant to Eastern Cape readers, particularly with the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) operating in Grahamstown.