The Eastern Cape education crisis deepened yesterday as it was announced that Modidima Mannya had resigned as Eastern Cape education department head. Eastern Cape Premier, Noxolo Kiviet, made the announcement and said the agreement was “in the best interest” of education in the province.

Discussing the woeful state of education in her province, the Premier said that education in the province had been “fraught with challenges over the past 18 years,” and then she rattled off the usual excuses:

[This is] partly derived from historical factors and numerous other dynamic contributing factors. These challenges have resulted in education experiencing the highest leadership turnover, in many instances losing some of our finest leadership at political and administrative levels.

Kiviet, herself not shy of the occasional scandal, went on to say yesterday:

Our discussions with Mannya… culminated in a mutual agreement to re-determine his employment contract. In terms of this re-determination [his] contract will end on 30 April 2012, while his operational responsibilities as head of department will cease with effect from the date of the signing of the agreement – that is today. [It] is not by any means a pronouncement on the suitability or not of the head of the department of education.

The Times reports that Kiviet wanted to offer him R2 million to leave, but he expected more.

Mannya’s performance in his role seems to be what has cost him his position.

Democratic Alliance MPL, Edmund van Vuuren:

We want to state it categorically that the mutual agreement was not influenced by anyone, but was a decision taken by both parties, having considered all possibilities. This department already lacks strong political leadership. With Mannya’s resignation, the department has also been left without strong managerial leadership.

Van Vuuren claimed that teachers union, Sadtu, had “driven out” Mannya:

Sadtu defied Mannya on many occasions, and absolutely resisted the carrying out of post provisioning for 2012, in other words, the movement of excess educators to substantive vacant posts. Sadtu must not get excited over this resignation. This union must be held responsible as the main contributor of the decay of education in the province.

Meanwhile, Sadtu provincial secretary, Mncekeleli Ndongeni, said the ANC had realised it needed to make a decision.

This was based on the fact that the national government had intervened in the provincial department’s processes after receiving a damning report from a group of five deputy ministers who had visited the province last year to assess progress.

[This was]… to save education in the province. We call upon our members to commit to the declaration of the recently held education indaba with regards to the role we must play in improving the results of the entire 2012 class.

The Eastern Cape ANC legislature welcomed the decision:

While we respect the confidentiality clause in the agreement signed by both parties, we take this opportunity to appreciate the work done by… Mannya during his tenure at the helm of the department.

Meanwhile, Helen Zille has apologised for tweeting: “While E Cape education collapsed, WC built 30 schools – 22 new, 8 replacement mainly 4 E Cape edu refugees. 26 MORE new schools coming.”

She said her words had been taken out of context.

[Source: TimesLive]