EDUCATION MEC Mandla Makupula needs to go back to school. Not only does he know little about our law, our constitution and his duty as an MEC and a human being – but he chose to proclaim his ignorance to more than 100 schoolchildren – every one of whom clearly knew more than he did.
The angry MEC told dozens of matric pupils gathered at the Bhisho Legislature for the annual schools’ State of the Province Address debate that children in this country have no rights. This rights vacuum, according to our MEC, persists until they turn 21, become independent and have a car. In an act of overt unkindness, the MEC then said the children had been too articulate and eloquent and had clearly not written their own speeches.
The published photograph of the three winners says it all. It shows three unsmiling young women holding their large – and by now meaningless – trophies.
These are teenagers who know their rights and who had the courage to proclaim them from the podium in the legislature. But the MEC did not like that – just as the ANC did not like the recent FNB “You Can Help” campaign” in which outspoken teenagers are filmed criticising government and talking about the need for honest governance, better service delivery and a proper education.
Makupula then went so far as to suggest children who insist they have rights should be beaten. Referring to a boy who took his father to court to avoid being forced to undergo initiation rites, the MEC proclaimed he would have “hit him on the head with a knobkerrie and he would have gone to that initiation school crying”.
Does the MEC not know the SA Schools Act has banned corporal punishment in the classroom since 1996? What message is he sending to teachers and pupils? We have an Education MEC who tells children at the seat of governance in this province that he would happily beat a child with a dangerous weapon. His utterances are morally and factually wrong and completely contrary to this government’s policies and laws.
It is also an explicit rejection of his oath of office in which he swore allegiance to the constitution. Ours is a constitution that takes children’s rights so seriously that it dedicates an entire section to them. It includes the right of every child to security, basic nutrition, basic health and social services – and the unqualified right to a basic education.
How is it even possible that an Education MEC could be unaware of these rights? Makupula clearly needs to be re-educated about democracy and constitutionalism.
Until he is, Premier Noxolo Kiviet should appoint someone else to do his job.