23 January 2023

The SACP in the Western Cape has listened to and noted the presentation of the 2022 National Senior Certificate results as they were presented by Minister Angie Motshekga on 19 of January 2023.

We join all the progressive forces in our province in congratulating our learners and teachers for their sterling work, most particularly those that come from our own working class communities. It is no secret that in the Western Cape we have two distinct communities within the education system; those that have an abundance of resources, good infrastructure, high fence security, digital security and swimming pools whilst on the other hand you have schools where learners duck and dive guns daily, with broken windows, no security of any form, less or no learner support material, just to mention a few. All these learners are equally examined on the same papers despite all the disparities they find themselves in and, despite all that, they emerge as warriors in the same papers written by their fully resourced counterparts.

The Western Cape Education Department acts as advisors to the Minister for good work ethics, good systems and well managed schools and yet since the governance of the DA, the performance of the Western Cape has declined in the National Senior Certificate. The DA are proponents of global capitalism whose interest is on who is number one rather than the values of education itself. Our communities are also tuned to follow on this competition which at times leads to some of our learners committing suicide against the same values of the education in which they have indulged for twelve years of their schooling.

In the Western Cape under the DA, every year teaching is delayed because attention must be given to unplaced learners in the working-class communities. There is no clear strategy of Government to solve the problem once and for all. The SACP has in the past called for the integration of communities as one of the means to curb overcrowding in working-class schools and ensure that all school going age children are at school. That call has fallen on deaf ears of the Western Cape government.

The SACP is committed to working with all organisations or institutions, including the DA, in an attempt to improve the lives of our people, their social conditions and education, in particular. Nelson Mandela once said, education is the most important weapon which we can use to change the world. In working class communities, one educated child that has a job is forced to feed 5 to 10 families excluding people outside his family. That is the legacy of capitalism.

Once again, we congratulate our matriculants for the sterling work under difficult conditions of having nothing which was further exacerbated by the ongoing load-shedding.  We equally call for those who did not make it not to despair as failure is the first step towards success.

Issued by the SACP Western Cape

Benson Ngqentsu
SACP Provincial Secretary
0827966400

Disang Mocumi
Provincial Media Liaison
0726775940