Angie Motshekga on her future, education and change: 'I don't want to sell myself'
As the longest-serving minister in the education ministry, Angie Motshekga has faced praise and criticism. From the Limpopo textbook saga to children falling into and dying in pit latrines, Motshekga’s term has been dealt major blows.
In an interview with eNCA, Motshekga said although the department had had some misfortune, not all had been doom and gloom.
On wanting to go back to the ministry post-elections
“I don’t want to sell myself. It’s not in my control. If the ANC go, I will go. If they say go back, I will go back. So it’s really not something I want to make a public discussion.”
Limpopo textbook saga
“I don’t want to be defensive and say sometimes it’s misinformed battles. As a minister of education, on textbooks I make policies and prescribe books, I don’t deliver books. So the Limpopo thing was just completely unfortunate.”
Children dying in pit latrines
“In terms of pit latrines, it’s also a sad situation that we have had to find ourselves in. We’ve had kids dying in our hands, not only in pit latrines, through violence – just very sad and unfortunate situations that I find them completely regrettable. We didn’t build pit latrines, we found pit latrines and we are on a journey to clear them out.”
Not all is doom and gloom
“To say 10 years marked with two children dying in pit latrines out of 12 million and delayed textbooks is exaggerating issues and blowing things out of proportion. There are a lot of things we have achieved as this administration and this government. We’ve achieved a lot.”
Financial constraints
“We have had to reprioritise budget, we’ve had to get the special budget, we’ve had to fundraise to get the private sector to help us. Even when the president said please eradicate (pit toilets) we didn’t have budget.”
Improving quality education
“There are ongoing challenges. Safety is also a quality issue to make sure that we have safety in our schools. Learner well-being is not where it is. We still have high infections among young people, we have children with special needs not fully serviced.”