EDUCATION head Mthunywa Ngonzo has described a shattering state of affairs in his department , telling the court of complete administrative collapse and systemic disintegration of the entire school system.
In an affidavit to the Grahamstown High Court Ngonzo said total lack of management in the department had led to the collapse of labour relations, procurement systems, risk management and human resources.
This had led to poor decision-making, zero accountability, overt defiance of instructions, no control over misconduct, financial non-compliance and collapse of systems across the board.
He accused unions of adopting subversive strategies to frustrate the department and said their crude challenge to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s authority had caused unquantifiable damage to the national and provincial departments’ ability to assert their leadership.
Ngonzo said while the problems were now being addressed meaningfully, the rot had started at the top, where there had been “challenged leadership, management and governance”. In 16 years there had been 13 HODs, six MECs and numerous CFOs, most of them serving in an acting capacity.
And way down the line, schools and pupils were the victims of this massive mismanagement. Ngonzo blamed the administrative chaos and the trade unions for his department’s current failure to heed every aspect of a court order it consented to in March.
In terms of the order, Ngonzo’s department was supposed to have appointed more than 140 teachers at 17 Eastern Cape schools on a temporary basis until May, after which their appointments were to be made permanent.
The Legal Resources Centre launched the case on behalf of the schools’ governing bodies and the Centre for Child Law (CCL).
Ngonzo said the department had largely complied with this order but it had been made impossible to meet every aspect of it, and the department was battling to turn around some of the more persistent systemic problems of the past, which continued to obstruct its service delivery.
This was compounded by the “unprecedented attacks on the department by organised labour”, which he said was waging an “acrimonious war on the minister , her department and the provincial departments of basic education”.
Ngonzo slammed the ongoing litigation and said it undermined the department’s attempts to “transcend the formidable obstacles in delivering basic education”.
He said litigants were mostly from “ex model-C schools who were utilising the courts as a quick fix” for their schools at the expense of less advantaged schools.
Only four of the 17 schools are former Model C schools. The rest are all historically disadvantaged or no-fee schools.
Some of the problems Ngonzo lists are :
l Poor leadership, management and governance;
l No financial or performance accountability or compliance due to lack of performance management;
l Total collapse of labour relations, human resources and supply chain management and dysfunctional risk management;
l No appropriate or functional decision making structures, resulting in annual qualified or audit disclaimers;
l Numerous under-performing schools;
l Inability to perform because of vacancies coupled with low skills;
l Unreliable data regarding teacher and pupil skill profiles, making it impossible to manage staffing at schools;
l Incapacity at the 23 district offices; and
l Financial management characterised by an absence of controls and over-expenditure on the swollen teacher establishment and under-expenditure on goals and services.
On a more positive note he said a turnaround strategy was in place and that there was now a permanent MEC, head of department and chief financial officer.
This considerable improvement in leadership was likely to lead to a resolution to the “true underlying problems” that led to the litigation.
The 23 districts would be integrated into eight districts, which would result in more efficient management and control.
They were rationalising and re-aligning the 5742 schools in the province and closing smaller schools.
HR was being turned around and labour relations improved by including consequence management and accountability.
“I submit that this demonstrates that the systemic problems have been inherited and have festered over numerous years, but are now being addressed meaningfully.”
The matter is to be argued on June 6.
Ngonzo describes education collapse
In an affidavit to the Grahamstown High Court Ngonzo said total lack of management in the department had led to the collapse of labour relations, procurement systems, risk management and human resources.
This had led to poor decision-making, zero accountability, overt defiance of instructions, no control over misconduct, financial non-compliance and collapse of systems across the board.
He accused unions of adopting subversive strategies to frustrate the department and said their crude challenge to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s authority had caused unquantifiable damage to the national and provincial departments’ ability to assert their leadership.
Ngonzo said while the problems were now being addressed meaningfully, the rot had started at the top, where there had been “challenged leadership, management and governance”. In 16 years there had been 13 HODs, six MECs and numerous CFOs, most of them serving in an acting capacity.
And way down the line, schools and pupils were the victims of this massive mismanagement. Ngonzo blamed the administrative chaos and the trade unions for his department’s current failure to heed every aspect of a court order it consented to in March.
In terms of the order, Ngonzo’s department was supposed to have appointed more than 140 teachers at 17 Eastern Cape schools on a temporary basis until May, after which their appointments were to be made permanent.
The Legal Resources Centre launched the case on behalf of the schools’ governing bodies and the Centre for Child Law (CCL).
Ngonzo said the department had largely complied with this order but it had been made impossible to meet every aspect of it, and the department was battling to turn around some of the more persistent systemic problems of the past, which continued to obstruct its service delivery.
This was compounded by the “unprecedented attacks on the department by organised labour”, which he said was waging an “acrimonious war on the minister , her department and the provincial departments of basic education”.
Ngonzo slammed the ongoing litigation and said it undermined the department’s attempts to “transcend the formidable obstacles in delivering basic education”.
He said litigants were mostly from “ex model-C schools who were utilising the courts as a quick fix” for their schools at the expense of less advantaged schools.
Only four of the 17 schools are former Model C schools. The rest are all historically disadvantaged or no-fee schools.
Some of the problems Ngonzo lists are :
l Poor leadership, management and governance;
l No financial or performance accountability or compliance due to lack of performance management;
l Total collapse of labour relations, human resources and supply chain management and dysfunctional risk management;
l No appropriate or functional decision making structures, resulting in annual qualified or audit disclaimers;
l Numerous under-performing schools;
l Inability to perform because of vacancies coupled with low skills;
l Unreliable data regarding teacher and pupil skill profiles, making it impossible to manage staffing at schools;
l Incapacity at the 23 district offices; and
l Financial management characterised by an absence of controls and over-expenditure on the swollen teacher establishment and under-expenditure on goals and services.
On a more positive note he said a turnaround strategy was in place and that there was now a permanent MEC, head of department and chief financial officer.
This considerable improvement in leadership was likely to lead to a resolution to the “true underlying problems” that led to the litigation.
The 23 districts would be integrated into eight districts, which would result in more efficient management and control.
They were rationalising and re-aligning the 5742 schools in the province and closing smaller schools.
HR was being turned around and labour relations improved by including consequence management and accountability.
“I submit that this demonstrates that the systemic problems have been inherited and have festered over numerous years, but are now being addressed meaningfully.”
The matter is to be argued on June 6.
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