The Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga is horrified at the blatant lies being spread by Vytjie Mentor via her social media page. The insinuation made by Mentor on her Facebook post that “R42b is missing in one financial year” and that the “Minister’s child aged 22 drives a Lamborghini” are both utter lies. These lies have absolutely no basis in the truth and are a weak attempt to besmirch the reputation of the Minister.
Minister Motshekga not only condemns these lies in the strongest possible terms but has decided to instruct her lawyers to follow on this matter and sue Mentor for defamation of character. The hurtful and defamatory lies are completely unnecessary. The Minister cannot let these lies go unchallenged that seek to undermine the immense progress that has been made in terms of infrastructure delivery and tarnish her own reputation. The allegations therefore are completely unfounded and demand of her to clear her name.
The comments made by Mentor were accompanied by a picture of learners sitting at school desks outside in the open. We have asked the Eastern Cape Department of Education to investigate the circumstances of the picture and they have confirmed that it was Grade 10 learners. We have asked then to explain why such took place and action need to be taken against whoever was responsible and allowed such to occur as it is unacceptable for learners to be expected to learn under such conditions.
The picture was taken in the Libode district of the Eastern Cape. This area has been the biggest beneficiary of the school build programme as it is a very rural area made up mostly of mud schools. In a bid to eradicate mud schools and unsafe structures, to date 53 new state of the art schools have been built in this district through the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI) alone, and another 10 are at various stages of implementation.
In fact just last week the Minister handed over one of these new schools, Bungu JSS, over to the community of Libode. Government is working extremely hard to ensure that learners go to school in an environment that is conducive for learning and teaching.
To this end the ASIDI project seeks to replace all schools constructed out of inappropriate materials in their entirety such as mud, asbestos and plankie or wood. The impact of ASIDI is far reaching as it is providing infrastructure that meets, and in cases exceeds, the minimum norms and standards for educational facilities in South Africa. Besides the brick and mortar of these schools’ construction, ASIDI is also helping to restore dignity and pride to the education sector especially to those learners in rural and under privileged urban areas who were neglected by the previous Government.
Government under the leadership of Minister Angie Motshekga is working tirelessly to address the huge backlogs in infrastructure that many believed were insurmountable, but the progress made in the last three years in regards to addressing backlogs has proven that when there is a strong political will we can meet these challenges and change the landscape of the education system drastically for future generations.
Enquiries:
Troy Martens
Cell: 079 899 3070
