I have received a report from a high level team sent to the Eastern Cape Provincial Education Department, comprising the Director-General of Basic Education, the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and provincial and national Treasury departments on the recent developments in that province.
The team is the process of finalising a report in terms of the nature and scope of the intervention that has to be made collaboratively with the province. In addition, it is considering the legal and constitutional processes and consequences of any contemplated intervention.
Our legal team is currently in direct consultation with the province. The team will revert to the Ministry by Friday morning, 25 February 2011, after which I and the Eastern Cape Premier in consultation with the Presidency, will make known the specific interventions.
On the court matter that saw the Bisho Magistrate court award an interim court order against the province to reinstate thousands of temporary teachers whose contracts have been terminated, we would like to clarify that the Ministry of Basic Education was not cited as a respondent in the matter.
We regard the suspension of the contracts of those teachers as one of the critical areas of intervention, and will be working with the province to find an immediate solution.
I would like to assure the public and most importantly parents, learners and our stakeholders in the Eastern Cape that we regard the situation in the Eastern Cape as extremely urgent, and are therefore working around the clock to remove all hurdles that hamper teaching and learning in the province.
Source: Department of Basic Education
