MINISTER OF BASIC EDUCATION TREATS EDUCATION OF LEARNERS AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM WITH UTTER CONTEMPT
12 July 2012
Today was meant to be the day that the vital hearing of the case on teacher post provisioning would be heard in the Eastern Cape High Court, Grahamstown. Hundreds of thousands of learners' education depends on a positive outcome to this case, and a finding as to whether the provincial and national government have violated their rights.
However, once again the Minister of Basic Education and her department treated the court, and all the parties before the court, with contempt.
Despite having had more than a month to file an affidavit the Minister delayed doing so. On 10 July 2012, the Minister filed a brief answering affidavit associating herself with the Provincial Department's case. She argued that the section 100(1)(b) intervention required no less of her than to "authorise" the Province to perform its existing obligations.
A day later, the heads of argument filed by the Minister dealt only with the technical issue of urgency: she argued that because learners had been without teachers for seven months, there is no reason to treat the matter as urgent at this late stage. However, at the end of argument her counsel conceded that not providing teachers or paying their salaries was urgent.