Helen Zille has hit back at Equal Education's criticism of her, saying the organisation was "riddled with errors".
|||Cape Town - Premier Helen Zille has hit back at Equal Education’s criticism of her, saying it was the organisation which was “misleading and riddled with errors”.
Those were the exact words used by Equal Education last week to describe Zille’s support of Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
Zille had come to Motshekga’s defence and said she had fulfilled her constitutional responsibilities, more so than her predecessors. Equal Education had then pointed out a number of “factual errors” in Zille’s argument. Zille released a statement on Monday afternoon detailing her response.
“Equal Education’s allegations are ironic, because it is their own statement… that is misleading and riddled with errors. In this statement, I address each of Equal Education’s claims. These minutiae are boring to the average reader but it is important to set the record straight, especially given Equal Education’s tone of outraged self-righteousness.
“While we all agree that South Africa’s education system is in crisis, and we all believe schools should have infrastructure conducive to teaching and learning, Equal Education is often wrong in its approach to these issues, in substance, style and strategy.”
Zille went into technical detail about why Equal Education’s campaign for minimum norms and standards was misguided and “indeed unaffordable to the fiscus”.
“Rather than spending money on a misdirected campaign for infrastructural ‘norms and standards’, it would be far better to run a project to install solar panels at schools that still do not have electricity.
“It would also be good to hear Equal Education saying a lot more about the constant and repeated vandalism of school infrastructure, particularly fences and electrical installations.”
Zille said Equal Education must accept they were not the only people who cared about education in South Africa.
“They do not have a monopoly on morality or judgement or insight. I will always defend their right to organise and to protest, but it would help if they got their facts right…”
Zille’s newsletter, SA Today, would be devoted this week to the debate around norms and standards for South African schools and the major policy issues involved.
michelle.jones@inl.co.za
Cape Times
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