Department fails school pledge

The Eastern Cape education department has failed to meet its own deadline to deliver furniture to Sakuphumelela Senior Secondary School.

The school, in Zalarha near King William’s Town, has not been getting furniture or textbooks for the past two years and the department promised to deliver last Friday.

School principal Mncedisi Poswayo said nothing had arrived. This was despite the education department stating last week that the school would be getting much-needed material.

Poswayo said the department had not contacted the school to explain why the material was not delivered.

Eastern Cape education department spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said on Thursday last week that the department would deliver furniture the following day.

At the time, Mtima added that textbooks were also scheduled to be delivered at the end of this month because they had not been delivered for the past two years.

He said the school had failed to submit orders on time and this caused the delays in receiving the materials.

Mtima had not responded to questions at the time of writing yesterday.

The school’s enrolment number stood at 96 last year. This year it increased to 127.

It is in the process of being changed from a section 20 school to a section 21 school after it applied to be converted.

Section 20 schools are no-fee schools, have their needs paid for directly by the department and are categorised as poor schools with no resources to administer their funds.

Section 21 schools have their finances paid into their accounts by the department and they administer them.

The school had to fight to have its name removed from a list of those earmarked for closure by Education MEC Mandla Makupula last year. — msindisif@dispatch. co.za