MEC Lesufi spreads blatant fake news over Western Cape schools

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has taken note of a statement issued by the Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi on Saturday in which he expressed his “disappointment” over the Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) “decision to defy the President” sighting “a circular indicating that all schools will only break for a week, instead of a month as indicated by the President”.

MEC Lesufi’s statement is blatant fake news and misinformation. The facts are that on Friday, 24 July 2020, the WCED Head of Department (HoD) issued a letter, not a circular, to principals in the province to provide guidance on how to manage schools in the coming weeks in light of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) not yet having issued directions in this regard.

Furthermore, the letter also indicated that all Western Cape schools would break for the week of 27-31 July 2020. The letter did not in any way, as MEC Lesufi had suggested, insinuate that schools in the province would break for the week and open the following week.

Lesufi’s statement on Saturday was not only patently false, it was also hypocritical because on the very same day the Gauteng Education Department’s HoD issued an almost identical letter to principals, to the one circulated by the WCED HoD on Friday.

The MEC’s statement was therefore nothing more than an attempt to grandstand and score cheap political points on the issue of the closure of schools. Lesufi’s statement is indicative of how the ANC has used schools and learners as a political football during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Just this weekend reports emerged that the decision to close schools was due to pressure from unions. This reaffirms the DA’s position that President Cyril Ramaphosa would rather please unions at the expense of learning and teaching at our schools and underscores the ANC’s indifference to the fate of South Africa’s children.

The fact is that schools were closed despite empirical evidence from scientist saying that “learners are better at school than in communities and homes where [most of] the infections are actually taking place.”

To this end, the DA will approach the court to challenge this decision, on the basis that it is more politically rather than scientifically motivated and not in the best interests of South Africa’s 14 million schoolchildren.

The cost to closing schools is profound and will be borne by children and families for many years.

The DA has always maintained that the closure of schools is by far the least effective strategy to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The effect of closing schools disproportionately disadvantages our children and gamble with their future.