Eastern Cape education superintendent-general, Modidima Mannya, has stepped down.
Mannya, who has endured intense pressure from teachers union Sadtu to step aside, has agreed to a reedetermination of his contract with the Eastern Cape government.
Premier Noxolo Kiviet said that Mannya's contract will come to an end on April 30 but he will seize all operational duties as head of the embattled Bhisho education department from Monday.
Premier Kiviet says the mutual agreement with Mannya "was reached in the best interest of Education in the Eastern Cape" and is not by any means a pronouncement on Mannya's suitability or not as head of the department of education.
"We also acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to be done to claim that we are getting out of the woods," Kiviet said.
"There are still a lot of challenges affecting delivery of education in the Eastern Cape including a need for a more unified interpretation of the problems and a shared approach to the solution across numerous players who share the passion for the education of our people. An overriding factor we must all internalize is that the mission to educate our nation is a bigger common good to which we should submit and subject ourselves."
The ANC in the Eastern Cape says it "welcomes the latest developments with regards to the mutual agreement reached by the Eastern Cape Provincial Government and Education Superintended General, Advocate Modidima Mannya."
ANC spokesperson, Lubabalo Mabuyane, said Mannya's departure was not inspired by the wrongfully reported assertion that the ANC had instructed Premier Kiviet to remove him.
"We want to state it categorically that the mutual agreement was not influenced by anyone but was a decision taken by both parties, having considered all possibilities," he said.
Mabuyane says the ANC remains committed "to provide the necessary political leadership to resolve issues that continue to ravage our provincial Education by attending to administrative, financial and political issues."
"These issues were never about Advocate Mannya. We have long been saying, that the challenges in the Department of Education are historic, systemic and predate the arrival of Advocate Mannya," Mabuyane said.
He says in light of the latest developments the ANC calls " on all stakeholders key in the Education Department to focus on ensuring that teaching and learning takes place in all our schools."
Education Minister, Angie Moteshekga, says she's "noted" the agreement reached between Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kievit and Mannya.
"The Minister and a team of five Deputy Ministers led by Basic Education Deputy Minister Enver Surty will be in the Eastern Cape on 24-25 April to meet with Premier to discuss progress with regards to Section 100 (1) (b) intervention currently under implementation in the Eastern Cape Department of Education," Minister Motshekga said.
The Democratic Alliance, however, has put Mannya's departure squarely at the door of teachers union Sadtu.
DA spokesperson on education, Edmund Van Vuuren, said he "learned with regret that Mannya had succumed to undue pressure exerted onto him by Sadtu (SA Democratic Teachers Union).
"This is not in the interest of education in the Eastern Cape, in view of some of the successes achieved and implementation of programmes which would have taken the department forward," Van Vuuren said.
"Sadtu defied Mannya on many occasions, and absolutely resisted the carrying out of post provisioning for 2012, in other words, the movement of excess educators to substantive vacant posts," he added.
