Pretoria - The DA has accused the Gauteng Department of Education of wasting more than R80 million on court battles rather than using the money to build more schools in the province.
DA education spokesperson Khume Ramulifho made the accusations after education MEC Matome Chiloane gave him a detailed response to a question about litigation cases dealt with by his department during the past five years.
Ramulifho said incompetence and failure to deliver adequate school infrastructure had resulted in the department being implicated in 1 062 litigation cases costing more than R80 million over the past five financial years. Most of these cases were related to combined summons, learner injury and court orders, and letters of demand.
According to Chiloane, of the 1 062 cases opened against the department in the 2018/19 to 2022/23 financial years, there were 223 pending court cases as of March this year.
“The millions spent on these litigation cases could have been used to provide adequate, much-needed infrastructure at schools, such as eradicating asbestos schools, maintaining dilapidated and ageing school infrastructure, and providing sporting facilities, science laboratories and libraries.”
Despite some fees being reduced or cancelled, the monies spent by the department on finalised cases the past five years are: R2 million in the 2018/19 financial year; R24.7 million in the 2019/20 financial year; R15.6 million during 2020/21; R41 million in the 2021/22 financial year; and R933 072 in 2022/23.
“All the funds used to resolve issues the department could have avoided, such as children being injured on school premises. Schools should be safe places for our children and the environment must be conducive to learning and teaching.
“The fact that few cases were in the department’s favour shows that GDE is barely meeting its standard to uphold its mandate to provide quality learning and teaching,” Ramulifho said.
Cases ruled in the department’s favour in the past five years include:
2018/19 financial year: 18 out of 129 resolved cases.
2019/20 financial year: 44 resolved out of 159 cases.
2020/21 financial year: 19 resolved out of 208 cases.
2021/22 financial year: 29 resolved out of 252 cases.
2022/23 financial year: 85 were resolved out of 314 cases.
Poor planning was behind the department finding itself in these legal predicaments, he said. “To avoid such litigations, the DA proposes that the GDE must focus on improving the learning and teaching environment at our schools across the province.
“In addition, the department’s legal unit should be well-equipped to ensure litigation cases are handled thoroughly without the department losing money,” Ramulifho said.
Pretoria News