Statement by TN Bevu, Cope MPL in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, March 22 2012
As we go to the election year the cat and mouse circus has begun. The situation of Myezo Wamapile at Grabouw is a typical example.
Umyezo (established as a primary in 1993) has been a Combined School since 2001, which means it has since been overcrowded.
This school caters for children mostly from African communities of Pineview and Siteview. Also children who want to attend a Xhosa class from Botriver and Vielsdorp daily commute over 20kms to this school, because the primaries in their areas do not cater for Xhosa speaking people. [Green flies has it that this is soon going to be another issue to be raised by the community.]
The community of Grabouw have been complaining about overcrowding at Umyezo. On several occasions they raised the matter with the district council in vain.
In the end they requested that the MEC of education, honourable Grant, to come and hear they complaints. He flatly refused. Subsequently that community went on a strike and decided to close the school until the Minister Grant comes to address them.
We don't know why Minister Grant refused to go address the community at Grabouw, but we have heard his department and the premier's say the PGWC wants to build another school there but has no land.
This has been DA's answer whenever communities ask for new schools. They did it at Hout Bay, Weste Coast, and now Grabouw.
Cope listed three available land owned by the PGWC here last year on the Hout Bay issue, and the education department has since decided to build a high school in one of them.
Again we put to this house that there's at least two available land at Grabouw to build a school. If you drive to the area you will see that there's land adjacent to the school that the PGWC is building a Mini Sport Ground on. This can be used as a school building land.
A school also can easily be built in Rooidakke (Grabouw). That land has long been earmarked for a school but none has been built up to date. Where it is situated it can serve the overcrowded children of Umyezo school.
Where then does this thing of not having land comes from?
When people from Pineview and Siteview community took to their fight into other areas the community of Grabouw became polarised. We saw last Monday when the striking people tried to burn Groenberg High School whose demographics has been wrongly reported as 90% coloured. In fact about 40% of pupils there are African. The community of that school rightfully defended their school when certain elements wanted to burn it, which is what created extreme polarisation in these two communities. Fortunately only one classroom was burnt, albeit with crucial school books.
On the march yesterday (Human Rights Day), it became clear that the whole issue has been politicised. Worse still, the police have become partisan in forming walls and protecting only DA supporters as opposed to the other side. It reminded of the apartheid state security when it used to do accompany IFP supporters in Johannesburg as they terrorised communities.
You must remember that all the problems of that area came about when the Councillor of Ward 13, Katty Boyseen, crossed over from the DA to the ANC. As the result there's By-election pending there.
Things have since become so pathetic that the DA has resorted to blaming a third force, and going for the conspiracy theory excuse. It says (Zak Mbele, the DA spokeperson in the premier's department) the ANC is trying to render areas ruled by the DA ungovernable.
This is the pathetic excuse of desperate governments that have ran out of bluff and lies to feed people.
Thank you!
Issued by COPE Western Cape, March 22 2012
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