SOUTH AFRICAN MUNICIPAL MESS June 6, 2008
Posted by frostygirl in News.add a comment
Our Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has promised a shake up of local government structures ahead of next years general election.
Obviously it would have been better if he had done this a few years ago already then we would not have been in this mess where incompetent people are running the municipalities into the ground and where “service delivery” is nonexistent.
It is quite surprising to hear such truthful remarks coming from him considering that he is criticising leadership openly and this could make him unpopular with the leadership of the country.
An article written by Quentin Wray in the Business report today states the following: “In a scathing attack, Manuel blamed weak politicians for poor service delivery. “The reality is that insecure leaders afford opportunities to incompetent people who will never threaten their office.”
Read the full story here:
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4440462
Too little too late Mr Manuel! Not enough time to “fix” this before the next general election.
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SOUTH AFRICA SCHOOL GIRL PREGNANCIES June 5, 2008
Posted by frostygirl in Education.1 comment so far
Some more information from my chat with the two black female teachers I talked about in my two previous posts.
School girls have now cottoned on to the fact that they can get the grant of approx R200pm per child per month and thousands of them have fallen pregnant on purpose in order to get the grant.
Every month they now miss a days school in order to go and stand in the queue to collect their grant money and to cap it all, the father of the baby (normally a school boy) also goes with her and then he gets half of the grant from her.
Who looks after the baby and pays all the expenses? Their poor parents or grandparents. The “mother and father” of the baby immediately spend the money on themselves when they obtain the monthly grant.
Now imagine how much time the young mother actually spends at school, she goes home during her school breaks to breastfeed the baby and when the child has to go to the clinic she has to take the child there. As we know, that is an all day affair here in SA.
The teachers have asked that they be allowed to teach abstaining from sex, but the government says no and provides free condoms for them and increases the monthly grant!
Where is this all going to end one might ask?
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SOUTH AFRICAN TEACHERS ROBBED BY GOVERNMENT June 4, 2008
Posted by frostygirl in Education.2 comments
The South African Department of Education employs many teachers on a “temporary” basis, these teachers fulfil their teaching duties at the schools they are sent to by the Department.
Apparently it has now become the norm to place these teachers and after they have worked for a month expecting to get paid, no pay arrives in their banking accounts. When they query the Department they receive a letter stating that they are “excess” and should not be at the school they were teaching at and that they must leave immediately without pay.
I understand that some of these temporary teachers have worked for months without receiving pay and only when they query the Department do they receive a similar letter as stated above.
The above practice seems illegal to me and I cannot help wondering why the “temporary” teachers, who have experienced the above, does not take the Department of Education to Court. I know that they do not belong to a Union, but surely they should have some recourse to highlight their plight!
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SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION IN REVERSE GEAR June 3, 2008
Posted by frostygirl in Education.add a comment
I had an enlightening and frank chat with two black female teachers today and I was shocked at what they told me about our education system in the section 21 schools in South Africa.
The one was a primary school teacher and the other a secondary school teacher. They both advised that the new curriculum was not working and that most learners in these schools cannot read or write, even Grade 12 learners! The teachers are told that they may not hold under performing children back at the end of each year, they had to move on to the next grade!
The teachers for Grade 12 learners are now told that they must allow the children to take oral examinations for their matric exams. The teacher must read the questions to the students and must then write the answers the students give them down for each student wishing to take an oral exam. Poor overworked teachers how are they expected to cope with all of this!
It is sad to hear the comment one of the teachers made, she said: “Our government do not care about their people and they do not care that the leaders of tomorrow will not be able to read or write!”
What an indictment on our education system, just think of all the money spent on education and because of the system of education only a small percentage of our black learners pass well and and go on to college or university.
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SOUTH AFRICA LAND GRAB STARTING? June 2, 2008
Posted by frostygirl in News.add a comment
Apparently the government is trying to pass a new land bill through parliment which will give one person (obviously an ANC Minister) too much power when it comes to negotiations with present landowners to purchase their land in order to hand it over to a new black owner. The wording in this document is very open and can allow the ANC to buy the land at below the market value of the property and it includes moveables as well.
Thanks goodness Helen Zille from the DA political party has spotted it and I hope she will gather enough support to stop it.
She asked whether this was the first step to South Africa becoming like Zimbabwe where land is arbitrarily taken from white farmers and handed over to black farmers who have no or little skills to work the farm productively?
This document is unconstitutional as it goes against the constitutional rights of the land owners. We will have to keep our eyes on this one to see what transpires
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