Speaker, children of the Western Cape are yet to be convinced of the strides the ANC has made, due to the reversals that there have been in this province, caused by the DA.
The children have been subjected to underdevelopment, they live in fear due to crime, and their parents are being denied the basic right to picket by the DA and ID. [Interjections.] The matric pass rate has been declining in the past five years. Bullets fly and students must lie down flat to escape death. Not so long ago children in the streets of Manenberg ... [Interjections.]
Order! Order!
... were shouting abuse at the police, whom they accused of beating them up while conducting searches.
It seems as if the Western Cape Education Department, which claims that it will build 21 schools in this year, but wants to close 27 in a similar period, is confused. This does not make sense, especially since only four schools are being constructed, whilst the rest are so-called replacement schools.
In Worcester black learners are being turned away from a high school, whilst children from the Cape Town metropolitan area are being bused in to make up the numbers. At a mixed school in Porterville only white teachers are appointed, as if we are still under the apartheid system. [Interjections.]
In many cases schools that have been vandalised have still not been fixed, whilst in some schools, like Beauvallon Secondary School, infrastructure, maintenance, and repair are still absent. The department lost a bid in court to close the school, but it seems to be refusing to fix it.
It is high time that the people of the Western Cape liberate themselves by voting for the ANC and being part of a good story that needs to be told. [Applause.]