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Fri May 24 15:56:53 SAST 2013

Angie's hotline is cold comfort

AMUKELANI CHAUKE | 02 August, 2012 00:16
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says a hotline will be launched to determine the extent of textbook problems in Limpopo Picture: DANIEL BORN

Thousands of pupils have gone without textbooks for the first half of the year, with several of them facing the possibility of having to repeat a grade.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga's solution? A hotline to establish how many schools in Limpopo are still without textbooks.

The hotline, which Motshekga said would be operational from Monday, has been set up three weeks after a probe by former Higher Education director-general Mary Metcalfe found that more than 33000 schools had not received textbooks.

Metcalfe recommended several strategies to prevent the collapse of education in Limpopo.

A hotline was not one of them.

A snap survey by The Times yesterday suggested that, at one school, 187 Grade 10 pupils had performed dismally in their June exams because of the non-delivery of textbooks. At another school, 381 pupils had to make do with only 57 textbooks, forcing them to make photocopies of the books at exorbitant cost.

Motshekga has described the late delivery of textbooks as "sabotage" by service providers.

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simonv

Posted 295 days ago
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She has failed in her duties and i do NOT see how this hotline is gonna reverse her failures.she should do the honorable thing, admit that she cannot manage the department and resign!president JZ is doing what he does best when things fall apart:nothing!what a leader we have!!
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defacto69

Posted 292 days ago
Agreed _ this useless incompetent excuse for a Minister should be fired. She has done nothing in the 2 years as MBE

Duzula

Posted 295 days ago
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Another hotline, remember JZ hotline what did that hotline do for us South Africa...
This hotline wouldn't work its just another waste of time and money...
In this saga no one wants to take responsibility for failing the Pupils...
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m1si2zi3nzo4

Posted 295 days ago
"just another waste of time and money." No it can't be, depending on who benefits from such 'waste'. The elite have honed skills of siphoning funds in creating havoc, and then using the public outcry at the crisis they create, to siphon even more funds. The tax paying public gets hit from every direction, and in every way. In a remote chance that a criminal gets charged, he or she siphons more funds in defending her evil deeds. She knows that she will be free within six months, if she ultimately sees the inside of jail. Then she will be re-deployed again, perhaps in a more lucrative position, away from the public scrutiny.
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Smaiza

Posted 295 days ago
@ Duzula

The question that you need to ask yourself is DO I KNOW EVERYTHING? or Just ask people, DOES ANYONE HAVE INFORMATION ON HOW JZ HOT LINE WORKS?

Let me give highlights JZ hot line is very much working two weeks back their advertised 18 call center contract jobs for three years.

Many people (including councilors) have been arrested on corruptions related issues...most housing...



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m1si2zi3nzo4

Posted 295 days ago
In an information age, where everything is accessible by a fingertip, it is extremely stupid and plain dumb to accumulate information at a central level of government. It is even unnecessary to have layers and layers of government -with bloated bureaus- at two sub-national levels, let alone the numerous tenderpreneurs that get lucrative contracts to do what the hundreds of thousand bureaucrats are employed to do there. Technology has rendered train-wreck structures obsolete. The organization chart's purpose is to quickly assign blame, should another accident occur, and not to fix problems, let alone prevent them. Even if a top manager were to get information about a problem, which would render useless her subordinates, she still has to channel it back to where it will be solved, at school level, after a long and costly route through the numerous layers below her. As we have seen, a failure to deliver a book to a school child has resulted in numerous costly "investigations" that have taken months to "investigate" and we are still in the dark. Imagine how long a 'hotline' can take to get any closer to verifying any problem of, say; a shortage of pens in a primary school in Bolobedu. We have grown immune to the ridiculous, its a norm.
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defacto69

Posted 292 days ago
@Smaiza _ Don't be an 1diot - It's just Spin Doctor window dressing - please wake up.

Tokolosh

Posted 295 days ago
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Motshekga has described the late delivery of textbooks as "sabotage" by service providers.
It is clear that you do not know what you are doing OR the people that work for you do not know what they are doing minister Motshekga. For such a long time to go by, just shows minister Motshekga does not have the knowledge or the vigor to manage such important role in government!

To be so sabotaged and your managers and assistants and subordinates let it happen for so long… maybe they are the saboteurs.

The buck and blame stops with the boss, I am sorry to say! It is her whole departments fault!

KafreeMoneykey

Posted 295 days ago
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If you look closely on who owns and runs these hotlines you will be shocked! I do not want to mention names here, but just a quick glance, check who is running and managing the Presidential Hotline and his relationship with Zuma...
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Thuka-Thuka

Posted 295 days ago
Out of interest, where did you find those details?
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defacto69

Posted 292 days ago
Yep - It's overseen and administered by the Hawks ( Zooooma's Budgie Brigade ) total waste of time reporting anything.

Thuka-Thuka

Posted 295 days ago
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What's the point of the hotline? To tell you there's a problem? Wow. Hey, Angie. There's a bleeding problem, fix it! There! I told you for free. No pointless hotline required.

Oh just fire her already.

bos

Posted 295 days ago
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Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has to pay the price. that how the system is being developed and it wronge. Understanding her role. i personal feel that people that supposed to take a fall are managers. The key people in our system are managers and are not taking a fall. 600 strikes across the country based on the fact that people are victimised by the system, while managers are protected. CounsellorBasic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has to pay the price. That how the system is being developed and it wrong. People need to understand her role.
I personal feel that people that supposed to take a fall are managers from national to district level to the people that were responsible for logistic and planning. If she don’t use her role to fire the incompetent people then she need to go too.
600 strikes across the country, Counsellors take a fall, managers a protected by the labour act policy even thou managers are key people in our service delivery.
She must start realising people that are incompetent.
s have become massangers

BobbyBob

Posted 295 days ago
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It is a disaster, it hurts the youth of the country most.
But, should the minister resign? I dont think so. We know that the public service is riddled with corruption, cadre deplyment and incompetence. Every department ( with few exceptions like SARS) , has crises regularly. If we ask a minister to resign every time a new crisis arises,we will have a massive turnover of ministers all the time, and that also cant be good.

Investor44

Posted 295 days ago
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Denying decent education to young people is a crime against humanity and should be punished as such. Rotten corruption to the core is the cause of all of this. The love of money which is the root of evil in SA politics. A fish rots from the head down. Bring on new leadership, vote for change. Why are people not demonstrating in the streets about this. Why are the people silent ?
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m1si2zi3nzo4

Posted 295 days ago
The problem is that in Zuma's idea of democracy is the power to control the country, and dish out patronage to those who support him. Only Mandela and Mbeki understood that cabinet posts can be given to any member of any party, because they are given according to competence, and this cannot always be found within the ruling party. As a result he cannot fire any corrupt Minister, without repercussions. Thus the job of a president is about dishing out lucrative jobs to his party's elite. It is no longer about managing the affairs of all the citizens. Hence the rampant corruption without reprisals.