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20 Jun 2012

Basic Education (DBE) Minister Angie Motshekga (MP) has learnt with great concern reports of the incomplete delivery of textbooks for Grade 10 learners in Limpopo. The Minister is taken aback by the delays by trusted service providers who vowed to deliver the books to Limpopo schools on time, by 15 June as per a High Court order issued last month.

“The situation is completely unacceptable. I have demanded a full report about reasons for this delay so that appropriate steps can be taken. We would like to apologise to the people of Limpopo, parents and learners in particular for the situation. We would also like to assure them that we have developed a recovery plan to make up for the time the learners have lost.

The department received 100 percent i.e. all textbooks from publishers on time, and I would like to thank them for their sterling work. Through the central procurement of textbooks which we have recently introduced, we managed to save the Limpopo government R1 billion.

My office was informed that textbook delivery has been completed, and we have been acting in good faith based on the information, only to discover this week that the information in our possession was not factual. We will now reinforce the capacity of our service providers to ensure that the textbooks are in schools as soon as possible”.

The department would like to appeal to various School Governing Bodies and the Democratic Alliance, who have done a lot of work collating information on the outstanding deliveries, to provide the DBE with the information so that we are able to resolve the matter immediately.

“I will be in Limpopo this Friday, 22 June to meet with all education stakeholders in Limpopo, to apologise for this unforeseen and unfortunate situation”, said Minister Motshekga.

Issued by: Department of Basic Education
20 Jun 2012

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