DOCTORS working for the Eastern Cape department of health are going the legal route to force the provincial authority to pay them their January salaries. Despite assurances by health superintendent-general Siva Pillay, 16 junior doctors have not received a cent for their work in public hospitals across the province.

OPPOSITION parties in King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) have called on local government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane to intervene in the affairs of the Mthatha-based council. “We appeal to the MEC to closely monitor the political activities of the KSD municipality as it is fast becoming a pigsty,” the UDM, COPE and DA said in a joint [...]

The Eastern Cape education department has filled 1500 vacancies following wildcat strikes by teachers who complained about being overworked, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Loyiso Pulumani said the department was “pushing hard” to ensure schools’ staff needs were met and that teachers for core subjects were in their posts.

Meddling and cadre deployment caused education crisis that led to national intervention by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, writes Sam Mkokeli “THE department is not dealing with movie stars that will come back by popular demand,” Eastern Cape education MEC Stone Sizani said in 2001, as he faced public pressure to take back the sharp-shooting [...]

PUPILS at several Eastern Cape schools that were severely damaged by storms last year may return to renovated classrooms next year after the Education Department received a multimillion-rand cash injection last week to fix them. Renovations to more than 60 schools in rural Transkei will begin later this month after the department received R125-million from [...]

SENIOR officials from the Eastern Cape department of education have been locked in meetings with five deputy ministers to assess the implementation of national intervention in the beleaguered department. The Daily Dispatch has learnt from a reliable source that deputy ministers involved in the national five-a-side team arrived on Monday for a two-day visit to [...]

THE DA is threatening to approach the public protector and national parliament after its motion to nullify ward committee elections across the province was outvoted by the ANC during a sitting at the Bhisho legislature on Tuesday. The ANC voted against the motion even though Transport MEC Tandiswa Marawu, speaking on behalf of Local Government [...]

BHISHO has condemned an impoverished Eastern Cape municipality’s plan to splash out R1.8-million on a two-day jazz extravaganza this weekend, saying the council should concentrate on issues of service delivery. But the Matatiele festival last night appeared set to go ahead tomorrow, even though only 975 of the 7 000 tickets had been sold just [...]

MARKING of matric exam papers got off to a smooth start yesterday in the Eastern Cape with the department being commended for its preparedness. Members of the provincial legislatu portfolio committee on education, who visited all 15 marking centres in the Eastern Cape, said staff at the centres were well prepared.

“The Democratic Alliances’s environmental affairs spokesman, John Cupido, said the metro had not been proactive in monitoring the population growth of the Gonubie informal settlement.” AROUND 1 200 shacks in Mzamomhle informal settlement have been built on environmentally sensitive sand dunes which form a buffer between the ocean and the sprawling Gonubie township. Residents of [...]