Chairperson, the removal of 395 mud schools in the Eastern Cape has long been needed and long been promised. It took the threat of court action for the Department of Basic Education to allocate appropriate funding and to make commitments to time frames for the replacement of mud schools by safe structures for learning and teaching.
The Bisho High Court order of 4 February 2011 required the first seven new schools to be completed on or before 1 May 2012. However, the department has rather badly let down the children who are accommodated in mud schools. For the children who use the following mud primary schools, the wait for safe schools has been and will be substantially longer than they were told: Matolweni; Thembeni; Sidanda; Sompa; Nkonkoni; Nomandla and Maphindela.
In November 2011, Parliament was told that some of the schools would be ready in March 2012 and others in June 2012. In February there was another announcement, in which we were told that all 49 schools that are part of the current contract would be completed by 31 August 2012. In fact, none of the schools was handed over on the promised deadline of 31 August. The children who are using mud schools will now have to wait until the end of November, at the earliest.
Why does the ANC-led government, provincially and nationally, continue to make the children suffer? The government must be charged for being in contempt of court. [Applause.]