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The Eastern Cape Department of Education has forfeited over R200-million of its Education Infrastructure Grant Funding back to National Treasury because it has proven it is simply incapable of spending the money.

The loss of funds is a devastating blow to the province, which has an ever-growing infrastructure backlog, currently standing at R82,3 billion.

The province has 3,157 schools with inadequate sanitation, of which 1,445 schools are still making use of pit latrine death traps. There are 3,926 schools that do not have appropriate fencing and 634 schools that need a total of 9,464 classrooms built or refurbished.

Despite these major challenges, the Department has proven incapable of spending the money it receives to deal with these challenges.

It has been clear for some time that the Department was not going to be able to spend the funding made available to it. As of December 2021, the Department had only spent R600 million of the R1.7 billion budget for infrastructure.

The R204,144 million in forfeited funds will most likely be distributed to other provinces that have proven they can spend the funds provided.

This while our learners get to spend another dismal financial year attending schools where roofs are falling apart, buildings are crumbling, and their safety is at risk on a daily basis.

What makes matters worse is that whenever a school appeals for assistance with failing infrastructure, they are told to take the funding from their maintenance budgets. However, these budgets have been dramatically slashed by up to 40% through the norms and standards budget cuts.

This is yet another devastating blow to learners of this province, and those responsible must be held accountable!

The bungling of the Education Infrastructure Grant is just further evidence that the Department is simply incapable of managing its affairs and needs to be placed under administration in terms of section 100 of the Constitution.

Issued by Yusuf Cassim - EC Shadow MEC for Education