Court battles to get furniture to all EC schools set to continue in 2015

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The Legal Resource Centre says the battle to get adequate furniture into all schools in the Eastern Cape will continue this year.

LRC attorney, Cameron McConachie, says they began court proceedings more than two years ago and in spite of three court orders, furniture has not been delivered to all schools.

He says days before the expiry of the the original deadline for the delivery of the furniture by May 31 last year, the Department of Education applied to the court for an extension to the end of September.

McConnachie says that deadlines has also come and gone without compliance by the Department of Education.

"The original deadline set for the delivery of the furniture was 31 May 2014. However, on 28 May 2014, the ECDOE and DBE launched an application for an extension until 30 September 2014. That date, too, has come and gone without compliance. As a result, there are still tens of thousands of students in the Eastern Cape who will begin another year without desks and chairs."

He says "investigations by the LRC have revealed that many schools with furniture needs have either had their needs incorrectly recorded on the DBE's furniture audit, or simply not been included in the audit at all. As it stands, the DBE's current plan is not sufficient to meet the needs of the schools in the province, as the furniture audit was not accurate and the entire budget needed to supply the furniture has not been sourced."

"As a result of this, and the continued requests for extensions, the Centre for Child Law's replying affidavit seeks a more detailed structural interdict, requiring monthly reporting on the progress made in procuring and delivering furniture, updated audits of furniture needs, and detailed time-frames for performance by the ECDOE and DBE,"said McConnachie.

However, he says despite "the failure of the ECDOE and DBE to comply with the court order of 20 February 2014, or to make good on the President's promise in his 2014 State of the Nation Address that furniture delivery would be completed by the middle of August 2014", the LRC and Centre for Child Law acknowledge that progress has been made.

He said that 99% of the R17 million worth of furniture that was previously in storage has been delivered to 169 schools. R40 million and R60 million has been taken from the ECDOE's 2014/2015 Learner Teacher Support Material budget to procure furniture. However, it appears that orders have not yet been placed. The DBE has provided furniture to 252 schools in the Libode district, and undertaken to supply furniture to 544 more schools in eight other districts of the Eastern Cape. It is estimated that deliveries to the 544 schools will commence at the end of November 2014 and will be completed by the end of January 2015. The DBE has also committed to providing double combination desks to all ASIDI schools in the Eastern Cape (the renovated former mud-schools), and these deliveries are ongoing.