Lindelo Ramakolo’s narrow face is barely visible behind the mound of papers on his desk. He shifts them into piles on the edge and leans forward on his scrawny elbows. His brow creases with frustration as he speaks of the anxiety he feels about the delay in the delivery of new textbooks for the 2013 academic year.
Lindelo Ramakolo’s narrow face is barely visible behind the mound of papers on his desk. He shifts them into piles on the edge and leans forward on his scrawny elbows. His brow creases with frustration as he speaks of the anxiety he feels about the delay in the delivery of new textbooks for the 2013 academic year.
Ramakolo is the principal of TEM Mrwetyana High School in Joza township, one of the Section 21 schools in Makana municipality that fought and won a protracted battle to purchase their own textbooks and stationery.
There are more than 5 800 schools in the province, of which 5 400 are Section 21 schools, which are those deemed capable of buying their own pupil-teacher support material, including textbooks, using the provincial department’s funds. In the case of Section 20 schools, the department is responsible for procurement.
Ramakolo’s black leather jacket weighs heavily on his shoulders. He speaks deliberately slowly, choosing his words carefully.
“There are people who say that the education department in the Eastern Cape is in ICU (the Intensive Care Unit),” Ramakolo said, “But the department says it has put forward some measures to change the situation.” He says that it has been a long, hard battle but he is optimistic that textbooks will be delivered in time for the new school year.
However, his optimism may be misplaced. A letter the Legal Resources Centre in Grahamstown (LRC) sent to the Department of Education stated that textbooks will be delivered to the schools that opted into centralised procurement first, and then to those that buy directly from book sellers. This could mean that Grade 11 pupils in about 1 000 provincial schools may not have books at the beginning of next year.
The letter, the latest in a series issued by the LRC to force the education department to comply with legislation allowing Eastern Cape schools to purchase their own textbooks, makes serious allegations of mismanagement and corruption against the department of education. In it, the LRC questions the legality of a service level agreement (SLA) that the department has entered into with the Publishers Association of South Africa (Pasa).
“The department has entered into an SLA with Pasa, for them to take full responsibility for the provision of all textbooks to our schools including transportation from source, warehousing, delivery to schools and securing proof of delivery from schools,” said Loyiso Pulumani, communications manager for the Eastern Cape education department in King William’s Town.
Pulumani maintains that the department was forced to step in as a result of the findings of an investigation conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers that reportedly uncovered instances of gross misuse of school funds and flouting of procurement rules and regulations. This, according to Pulumani, prompted the department to issue the circular revoking the powers of School Governing Bodies (SGBs) to purchase books.
In June, during the winter break, acting superintendent general of the EC education department Mthunywa Ngonzo issued a document (Circular 11) to schools saying that he would summarily withdraw the powers of the SGBs to buy textbooks for the 2013 academic year.
This came as a shock to Makana schools, many of which had successfully handled their school procurement budgets for the last four years.
Prior to 2008, government controlled the purchase of books but this resulted in delays, incorrect material being delivered, and the inability to rectify errors timeously.
Ramakolo fears a return to this state of affairs or that the situation could degenerate into a Limpopo-type crisis where pupils were without books until mid-year. “We prefer to procure books on our own. If we rely on the department, somewhere we are going to experience challenges,” he said.
However, the department claimed that it had received a complaint from Pasa at the beginning of the year accusing Section 21 schools of reneging on their debts for textbooks procured in 2011.
“The association was threatening to take the department to court to force us to pay the debts,” Pulumani explained. “As a result of this, the department was forced to use over R150 million from this year’s Learner Teacher Support Material (LTSM) allocation to settle the accrual due to the non-payment to Pasa.”
Many schools, including TEM Mrwetyana, received Circular 11 when they returned from school holidays (July 16), well after the deadline for response had passed. Naturally schools thought they were then forced to comply with this directive and rushed to get their book orders in to the district offices.
Some of them approached the local LRC for assistance, where Sarah Sephton works, and she is a formidable opponent. She has spent the last three years as a champion for Eastern Cape schools as they struggled to force the department to appoint teachers, build classrooms and supply books.
“According to the Schools Act, if you don’t agree with the decision of the superintendent general you can appeal this with the MEC,” Sephton said. Based on this, the LRC wrote to the MEC and the Minister of Education, Angie Motshekga, asking them to revoke Circular 11. The Minister set the document aside but her department failed to communicate this to schools, leaving principals in the dark.
In response to the LRC’s letters, the department issued a second statement saying that they would go ahead with their decision to take powers away from the SGBs but that those schools that did not want to comply had until 5 September to voice their objection. The LRC challenged this, saying that this was insufficient time for schools to respond. Subsequently Ngonzo extended the deadline until 21 September.
Ramakolo and several other principals, working through the LRC, successfully lobbied the department to allow them to exercise their right to purchase new textbooks for pupils in Grades 4, 5, 6 and 11 because they will use the new curriculum next year. Grades 1, 2, 3 and 10 received new textbooks this year.
“We have now placed orders with our regular suppliers for Grade 11 textbooks and stationery and have already received the bulk of the stationery,” Ramakolo said. “We are hopeful that the books will arrive by the time schools close.”
Virginia Bennet, who is in charge of textbooks at Mary Waters Secondary School, said her school had opted for centralised procurement of textbooks but bought stationery directly from their preferred supplier. “Stationery has been delivered but we are still waiting for textbooks,” she said. “There has been no word about when the books will be delivered.”
According to the department, 73% of all Eastern Cape schools opted to remain with central procurement and orders were placed in late September putting schools at risk of not receiving books before they close for the December holidays. According to publishers, in the best case scenario textbooks will reach the country’s more than 25 000 public schools between six and eight weeks after orders are placed.
“As we speak, over R100 million worth of textbooks are in Pasa’s warehouse in East London. Distribution to schools is about to take place in earnest,” Pulumani said.
But the LRC is concerned that the SLA may contravene the public finance management act (PFMA), which stipulates that contracts over R200 000 must be put out for tender.
According to minutes of a meeting between the education department and Pasa, the department will pay Pasa an additional 17.64% of the value of the book order, and Pasa will in turn pay a company called ELCB to warehouse and distribute books. This, according to Sephton, is against the law (Section 217 of the PFMA).
The LRC has requested that the Minister of Basic Education review the Pasa contract and confirm that ELCB has been retained lawfully. While the Minister has yet to respond, principal Ramakolo waits patiently for his books to arrive.
