Pupils sit on paint tins at makeshift tables, awaiting furniture delivery.
MILLIONS of rands worth of school furniture lies in storage around the province, while thousands of schoolchildren use makeshift tables as desks and empty paint tins as chairs.
Fourteen school furniture suppliers and manufacturers were awarded tenders worth more than R46.6-million to supply hundreds of Eastern Cape schools with school furniture within three days this month.
The tenders were awarded just two days before provincial government closed its books for the 2013/14 financial year.
On a tour of warehouses in Mthatha, Dimbaza outside King William’s Town, Mdantsane and in the Port St Johns area, a Daily Dispatch team discovered thousands of partially assembled desks.
The desks were delivered this way because the timeframe given to the manufacturers was too short.
Judge Glenn Goosen declared that the South African government and provincial and national education departments had breached Eastern Cape public school pupils’ constitutional right to a basic education by consistently failing to provide them with adequate school furniture.
He said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, her director-general Bobby Soobrayan and their provincial counterparts, MEC Mandla Makupula and Mthunywa Ngonzo, were also in breach of a 2013 court order to remedy this failure.
In 2011 an audit found that nearly 1 300 of 5 700 schools in the Eastern Cape needed furniture, affecting 605 163 pupils.
A more recent audit found the cost of addressing furniture needs would be about R360-million.
The education department has already indicated in court papers it only budgeted some R30-million for furniture – leaving it at least R330-million short of the mark.
Education department spokesman Loyiso Pulumani confirmed components were delivered at warehouses within district offices, instead of complete desks. He said the manufacturers would assemble the desks before they are sent on to schools.
Only a third of the desks ordered had been delivered and not all schools who needed furniture would receive it.
“We cannot meet the demand but we are trying our best to abide by the court order.”
School desks lie in storage
MILLIONS of rands worth of school furniture lies in storage around the province, while thousands of schoolchildren use makeshift tables as desks and empty paint tins as chairs.
Fourteen school furniture suppliers and manufacturers were awarded tenders worth more than R46.6-million to supply hundreds of Eastern Cape schools with school furniture within three days this month.
The tenders were awarded just two days before provincial government closed its books for the 2013/14 financial year.
On a tour of warehouses in Mthatha, Dimbaza outside King William’s Town, Mdantsane and in the Port St Johns area, a Daily Dispatch team discovered thousands of partially assembled desks.
The desks were delivered this way because the timeframe given to the manufacturers was too short.
Judge Glenn Goosen declared that the South African government and provincial and national education departments had breached Eastern Cape public school pupils’ constitutional right to a basic education by consistently failing to provide them with adequate school furniture.
He said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, her director-general Bobby Soobrayan and their provincial counterparts, MEC Mandla Makupula and Mthunywa Ngonzo, were also in breach of a 2013 court order to remedy this failure.
In 2011 an audit found that nearly 1 300 of 5 700 schools in the Eastern Cape needed furniture, affecting 605 163 pupils.
A more recent audit found the cost of addressing furniture needs would be about R360-million.
The education department has already indicated in court papers it only budgeted some R30-million for furniture – leaving it at least R330-million short of the mark.
Education department spokesman Loyiso Pulumani confirmed components were delivered at warehouses within district offices, instead of complete desks. He said the manufacturers would assemble the desks before they are sent on to schools.
Only a third of the desks ordered had been delivered and not all schools who needed furniture would receive it.
“We cannot meet the demand but we are trying our best to abide by the court order.”
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