THE Eastern Cape education department needs R4.4-billion to replace the unhealthy and unhygienic pit latrines and address general sanitary problems at schools. More than 3 000 schools are said to have no proper sanitation. This is 60% of the schools in the province. The department plans to fix 700 of these schools over the next 10 years. This was revealed by education MEC Mandla Makupula in his parliamentary response to …


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THE DA in the province yesterday called on education MEC Mandla Makupula to put a moratorium on his plan to merge all small schools in the Eastern Cape. Makupula announced the plan to “rationalise” more than 2 000 schools which had less than 200 pupils two years ago, saying the best thing was to close small schools and move the pupils to the next nearest school. But the DA’s Edmund …


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Those with no relatives in province will go elsewhere in SA THE Eastern Cape Social Development Department plans to start moving state-funded frail-care patients with no families in the province to facilities elsewhere in the country by next month. This was one of the answers given by Social Development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi in response to written questions about the ongoing saga. In mid-2016, Sihlwayi decided not to extend the contract …


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TAXPAYERS have forked out more than R1-million in eighteen months paying the salaries of 10 Eastern Cape social development officials who are sitting at home on precautionary suspension. This department has 32 pending disciplinary cases against staff members. Among these officials is one accused of buying R104 446 worth of radio airtime without following the correct procurement procedures. Another is being investigated for adding R5 500 to a quotation from …


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OPPOSITION parties in the Bhisho legislature have blamed the underwhelming state of the province address on an ANC “factional deadlock” in the province. This was stated by DA Bhisho leader Bobby Stevenson in his response yesterday to premier Phumulo Masualle’s Sopa speech. He said nothing was going to go smoothly in the province as long as the “chaos” caused by ANC factional battles continued to hold everyone to ransom. Masualle …


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