FED UP parents in the Eastern Cape have unofficially shut down close to 300 public schools in their communities, turning them into white elephants because they would rather send their children elsewhere to receive better schooling. This comes amid reports the state is to spend R657-million less on new schools this year as provinces battle [...]

COPE, DA heavyweights brave Bay’s bad weather to woo by-election voters COPE and DA political heavyweights braved yesterday’s inclement weather in their bid to woo Nelson Mandela Bay voters ahead of the hotly contested by-elections on Wednesday. The by-elections to be held in wards 55 (Motherwell), 26 (Zwide) and 15 (New Brighton) follow the deaths [...]

YOUNG doctors are leaving the Eastern Cape in droves because budgets are simply too inadequate to cover the basic costs of quality equipment and the maintenance of medical facilities. According to a Human Resources for Health report from October last year the Eastern Cape has just over half the density of health professionals per 10 [...]

EDUCATION stakeholders in the Eastern Cape have slammed the provincial Education Department’s budget for catering more to the financial needs of its staff than the department’s core business – the pupils. Tabling his second budget as MEC for Education yesterday, Mandla Makupula told how 91.2% of the R26.28-billion budget – up from R24.6-billion in the [...]

Presenting his policy speech for the 2012/2013 financial year at the Bhisho legislature, Gqobana said the hospitals set to benefit from this financial injection were Cecilia Makiwane in Mdantsane, St Patricks in Bizana, Frontier in Queenstown, St Elizabeth in Lusikisiki and Madwaleni inElliotdale. Gqobana said of the R1.4-billion set aside for infrastructure in the 2011/2012 [...]

OPPOSITION parties have slammed the Eastern Cape department of education for failing to resolve the issue surrounding more than 200 “displaced” officials in the province. This is after it emerged the officials who were no longer in their original jobs, or were sitting at home, were still on the department’s payroll.

DA PROVINCIAL legislature member Veliswa Mvenya has written to public protector Thuli Madonsela asking her office to investigate why Social Development funds were used to finance ANC Youth League events in the Eastern Cape. This follows a Daily Dispatch exposé last week which revealed that the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) secured funding from the [...]

THE cash-strapped Eastern Cape department of health is in the midst of a critical medical staffing shortage, with the provincial authority needing an additional R9-billion a year to fill the void. If the health department managed to fill the 27 267 vacant posts this year it would cost more than half of its 2012-2013 budget [...]

The Eastern Cape department of social development allegedly funded ANC Youth League regional conferences last year – because it believed it was paying for events organised and hosted by the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA). Investigations by City Press have revealed that the NYDA was given R540 000 by the department for eight “youth summits”.

EASTERN Cape Local Government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane is to investigate the appointment of Sundays River Valley municipal manager Lonwabo Ngoqo who was fired by Bitou municipality for financial mismanagement last month. Qoboshiyane said yesterday that based on the findings he would advise Sundays River on how they should deal with the matter. The DA wrote [...]