The provincial education department is scrambling to meet the terms of a 2010 court order to provide proper school facilities for a dilapidated “special needs” Makhanda school after the high court ordered the department’s top brass to come and explain its failure to do so. The Makhanda high court ordered education MEC Fundile Gade and his acting head of department Mahlubandile Qwase to appear in court in person at the end of the month to explain why the department failed to heed an August 20.
After the dust settled from the tumultuous ANC provincial elective conference, the political landscape has shifted considerably, with some of the province’s most prominent politicians left out in the cold while new faces are ready to step up and take up the mantle. Councillor Nanziwe Rulashe, who just months ago was physically dragged out of the Amathole district municipality offices, and controversial former Bay councillor Andile Lungisa, were two of the big winners who ascended to the part.
In an unusual turn of events, desperate parents at a top rural high school, whose principal was suspended for allegedly beating two pupils earlier this year, have implored Eastern Cape education MEC Fundile Gade to let him return to work.
Just less than a year after assuming office as the provincial education department administration head, under-siege superintendent-general Dr Naledi Mbude was on Tuesday placed on suspension by Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane. Mbude, who was appointed to the hot seat in June 2021, was placed on precautionary suspension on Tuesday, pending some investigations into her department operations.
The grandmother of the young schoolboy who was instructed to search among faeces for a principal’s cellphone in a pit latrine believes that justice for her grandson has been served, after the principal was banned from teaching at any school in the country for the rest of his life. She believes the decision by the SA Council of Educators (SACE) to strike Lubeko Mgandela off the register of teachers will serve as a warning to other teachers.