The Western Cape Provincial Parliament Speaker Daylin Mitchell has agreed to an urgent request from the Good Party’s Brett Herron to schedule a debate on the decision to cut 2407 teacher posts in the province.
Parliamentary officials will today join in a sitting to debate the impact of the national fiscal emergency on post provisioning in the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).
Herron noted that there are solutions to the province’s “engineered funding crisis”, which according to him, simply involve making better budgetary choices.
“We cannot sit by and allow decisions to go unchallenged that will undoubtedly add to the already severe inequality in the Western Cape.
“Billions of Rands have been assigned to non-core functions over the next three years, including innovation and safety, while a relatively small portion of this money could ensure no teachers’ jobs need be lost.
“It is the duty of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, as a legislature representing the people of the Western Cape, to hold the executive accountable for the decisions they make,” Herron said.
Meanwhile, Education movements and unions have called on parents, teachers and the broader public to stand with teachers.
Equal Education (EE) as well as the Equal Education Law Centre (EELC), called on the national government and provincial authorities to “rethink budget priorities, invest in the future, protect teachers’ livelihoods, and protect the rights of learners.
“We call on the public to defend the right to education by participating in a community-led picket at the WCED offices on Friday 13 September at 7:30 am,” EE spokesperson Sesethu August said.
For those who can’t make it, SADTU advised them to stand wherever they can and picket against the job cuts.