RSA POST 1994: SIGNIFICANT SOCIAL CHALLENGES

Prior to 1994, South Africa had an Apartheid government where many people were disenfranchised and had no hope for the future. Countless South Africans lost their lives for independence. Since then, we have made significant improvement but significant challenges still remain. This essay will focus on four of these areas; Education, Corruption, Disability and HIV.

 “South Africa has the worst education system in Africa, Mugabe’s education is better, although we have the highest capita expenditure in Africa” – Pik Botha. According to the Department of Education (2013) South Africa spends $1 225 (R13 168.75) on primary education per pupil. In 2012 the country experienced a shortage of textbooks for both primary and high schools. The province of Limpopo was majorly affected. Scholars in that province went on for more than 6 months without the use of textbooks.

ANA, Annual National Assessment, revealed in 2013 grade nine students scored an average of 13% for Mathematics. Later that year, “South Africa was named the second last country in the world with the worst education system in terms of Mathematics and Science by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Information Technology Report 2013.” (Politics Web, 2014)

According to Mail & Guardian (2013) fourteen Cape Town schools had to be closed due to gang violence. Violence in schools, particularly the coloured areas remain high. The country also faces teacher problems. The Eastern Cape has more teachers than any other province in the country but still produces poor grade 12 output.

In 2014 the secretary general of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe, announced that all government schools will be using tablets by the end of 2014. These tablets will replace the physical form of textbooks with e-reader. “All textbooks will now be in one place. Students will have an easier access to their textbooks. All required textbooks will be downloaded for free. This will expose technology to children from poor backgrounds.” Gwede, said. To find out if South Africa has quality education, Mazwembe, spokesperson of Equal Education, was interviewed.

“Equal Education, is a movement of leaners, parents, teachers and community members that strive for quality education through activism.  It was formed by Yoliswa Dwane, from Khayellitsha, in 2008, who is also our Chairperson. She saw the crisis our education system was in and noticed the government is not doing enough to better our education in South Africa. (Mazwembe, 2014)

 “The amount government spends on average per pupil is not enough to cover all the costs incurred by the parents. There is school fees, textbooks, school uniform, stationary, the list is endless, and all these things are expensive. Each year the government allocates billions of rands to Education but yet the Department of Education claims not to have insufficient funds.” (Mzwembe, 2014) 

School Infrastructure remains a problem particularly in provinces such as the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga. For these are the provinces with a high number of rural areas. The education officials are not doing their jobs thoroughly. This lead to the formation of the Minimum Norms and Standards Campaign (2010), which the Minister (Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga) finally passed as a law in 2013. This new law states that all schools (both primary and secondary) should have all the necessary equipment to learn such as Science Laboratories, Libraries, and Computer labs. The aim is to eradicate all mud schools by 2030” (Mzwembe, 2014).

“One of the factors that contribute to poor grade 12 output is resources. In some schools it is only the teacher who has a textbook, and scholars have no access to them. Teacher problems are also an issue as some are under qualified, and some do not attend classes.” (Mzwembe, 2014). Study by academics from the Stellenbosch and Witwatersrand Universities, shows that nearly 80% of the country’s Grade 6 Mathematics teachers are unable to do the curriculum. 

“The statement made by ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, was a political stunt; he announced that before the 2014 elections. The year is nearly over and only a handful of schools in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province have received those tablets. Ever since the elections have passed there have been no reports about them.” (Mzwembe, 2014).

When asked if there is quality education in South Africa, he took time to answer, as he had to think real deep. “Yes we do have quality education in South Africa, but only for certain classes.  Quality education exists for the upper and middle class citizens, but for the lower class there is no quality education. Proof of this, there is the difference between a school in Samora (a township in Philippi) and a school in Cape Town. We no longer have the mindset of our late hero Nelson Mandela, we are excellent at quoting his words, but we fail to put them in action”. (Mzwembe, 2014)

“Over 400 schools in the Eastern Cape are classified as mud-schools. 14% of schools in South Africa have no electricity. 10% have no water supply. 46%of schools use Pit toilets. 93% of schools have no library. 95% of schools have no stocked science laboratory.90% of schools have no computer centre. “(Mzwembe, 2014)

Moving forward, one of the challenges our country faces is promoting disability awareness. Not much attention has been given to disability discrimination, particularly in the work place. Challenges in fundamental social, political, and economic rights experienced by people living with a disability remain high. Even though, the government has implemented the EEA, Employment Equity Act, it does not guarantee success of equality in practise. Access to community health remains a key issue. With the appointment of Hendrietta Zulu (Deputy Minister of Social Development) who is living a disability, many anticipate a tremendous growth in disability awareness.

Example of the negligence of disability awareness is based on CPUT. “The CPUT Disability Awareness Unit, began with just 8 students, today, we have over 260 students. We support all kinds of disabilities, whether it is a physical form (wheelchair or amputated legs), sensory form (deaf or blind), or leaning (concentration, unable to read or wright).” (De Tiot, 2014)  

When responding to the myth that people have over people with a disability, her response was “people have the mentality that if you are a person living with a disability, you are somehow incomplete; I normally make an example of Albert Einstein who had a learning disability. These students are just as creative as everyone else.” (De Tiot, 2014) 

 “We assist in unlocking learning materials. We provide assistive devices to students depending on their disability. There are scrubs for students with physical disability; hearing aids for sensory disability and devices that nature speaking.” (De Tiot, 2014) 

“At CPUT Cape Town campus, not much is done to promote disability awareness. People living with a disability are not accommodated. The University is filled with steps which make it more difficult for our students to move around campus. Lifts are only covering certain points. In the Engineering building a lift for our students was inserted, within a day, the lift had a fault, students with no disability where utilizing it and the somehow managed to temper its wires. This is the problem we are facing.”  (De Tiot, 2014) 

Moving forward, I will now speak about corruption. I will be based on CPUT Cape Town campus. Corruption remains a major issue in the country as well as in the University. The Dean of Academics and the Dean of Operations, where approached countless times but to no success to comment on this. Each day a different story would be told. The SRC chairperson eventually agreed to spare 8 minutes of his time to be interviewed on this matter.

Although he knew the state of corruption in the university, he refused to go into detail. Two senior management team members were suspended due to corruption; the SRC was one of the forces behind it. They are now calling on a full investigation on the Director of Infrastructure and Faculty Management.

“Many members are benefiting illegally from the University and not just the two that was suspended. We are currently looking into the Finance Department. The have been allegations against lectures in the Engineering department as well the HOD, that they supply learners with exam scripts.” (Mhlontho, 2014)

Countless students are still without Residence. It is rather a mission to find one. One, can apply in time for it, but won’t be successful. There are students who don’t even apply for Residence, but still end up getting accommodation there. Some students have to pay SRC members or even some staff members of the Residence Department, to gain admission to residence. When asked about this problem, the chairperson simply answered “we are TRYING to investigate the Res (Residence) issue.” (Mhlontho, 2014)

“Admission marks remain a key issue, as many students who are in the Business Faculty do not qualify to study here according to their grade 12 symbols. The Business Faculty is too large to gain control over. The admin there just accept whoever they wish to.” (Mhlontho, 2014). 

When asked what they have done to lower the rate of corruption at our University, he referred me to the Vice Chancellor: Academics, whose offices are in the Bellville Campus.

“Our University is a public institution, that follows certain procedures and certain procedures are not followed. Corruption is an uncomfortable issue that many tend to run away from, but it must be brought up. Public intuitions are funded by the government and their finances must be made accountable to the public.” (Mhlontho, 2014)

The SRC is busy launching a bigger campaign against corruption. “Corruption is a very broad term; we can define it as corrupt activities by the HOD giving certain students better marks than others. We want to investigate everyone.” (Mhlontho, 2014)

A question was then raised, if a proper internal investigation where to be opened against the SRC members, how confident is he that none of his members would be found guilty. He responded “Yes, I’m confident none of my stuff would be found guilty.” The question was raised again, are you sure? He looked up, and took a minute to reply and finally said “no”.

Moving forward, over the past years the number of people HIV infected patients in South Africa, reached an endemic level. The number of HIV infected patients have increased more than three times since 1994. HIV positive people receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ARV’s) in 2012 was over seven times the number receiving treatment in 2005.

HIV is more prevalent in South Africa, than anywhere else in the world. According to the Department of Health (2012) more than 12% of the population is infected. In 2001, there were 4 400 000 HIV patients on ARV’s. In 2012 that number increased by more than a million to 5 600 000 and a death toll of 270 000. It is estimated by Ogunbodede (2004:54) that 72% of the world’s HIV infections are from Africa and that 91% of the world’s HIV-positive children live in Africa. Not only HIV has shown significant growth but TB as well, not much attention is given to TB. People are more educated about HIV than TB, yet these two illnesses go hand-in-hand.

The Department of Health has made it easy for everyone to have access to contraceptives such as condoms. The Department is busy introducing a new system of condoms to FET’s, Further Education Training. The department has introduced new flavoured condoms, finger condoms, mouth condoms (for oral sex), as well as femidom (female condoms). The government is doing more than expected to promote safe sex.  Illiteracy cannot be blamed for the incline of HIV. We have been taught about the HI virus and how to protect ourselves from it since grade 4.

Even though the Department of Health has done more than expected to increase the awareness of HIV, someone questions remain answered, such as how much confidence should we have in the National Family Health Survey estimate of the HIV burden? Does the National AIDS Control Program represent skewed priorities for our healthcare system? Have things really changed for people living with HIV? Does the government drug program reach the marginalized sections who are most affected, who have the least access to care?

Do we really know the relative importance of the different means of HIV transmission? Does the focus on sexual transmission and injecting drug use shift the responsibility of prevention to individuals rather than the system? How effective has the prevention of mother to child transmission program been? Should we require premarital testing for HIV? How important is a vaccine against HIV and where is the research going? What are the technical and ethical challenges in conducting vaccine trials?

Bantu education has fallen away, South Africa has tried OBE and it was not successful. The Education Department is now looking towards an education system that is attempting to be inclusionary and have equal rights for all. However, high failure rates for Universities indicate that a lot of work still needs to be done. Despite responsible and determined government initiatives to control the spread of HIV it still remains a significant problem. A lot has been done in terms of disability awareness but it is not enough. Disabled people are finding it difficult to practise their rights when they live in a country that does not accommodate them.  Much is done to fight corruption but its rate continues to rise. There has been great improvement since 1994 countless things have been done to improve the quality of service there in our country however; people have the wrong  mindset of thinking 20 years is enough to reverse 46 years of successful oppression. It can therefore be concluded that South Africa’s long walk to freedom continues. 

Reference

South Africa. Department of Education. 2014. How far have we come since 1994. http://education.gov.za 15 August 2014

World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Information Technology Report 2013.

Politics Web .2014. South African ranked worst in education http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=628064&sn=Detail 15 August 2014

Mazwembe, L. 2014. Interview with the spokesperson of Equal Education on 7 August 2014, Cape Town.

South Africa. Department of Health. 2014. HIV statistics in South Africa. http://health.gov.za

Ogunbodede O. 2004. HIV/AIDS Situation in Africa.  International Dental Journal. 54 (352–360).  http://who.int/oral_health/publications/orh_idj54_05_ogunbodede 7 August 2014

Mhonto, L. 2014. Interview with the SRC chairperson on 5 August 2014.  Cape Town

De Tiot, N. 2014.  Interview with the chairperson of the disability unit at the CPUT Cape Town Campus on 7 August 2014.  Cape Town

Mail & Guardian. 2014. Violence in Cape Town schools increase. http://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-14-fourteen-cape-town-schools-to-close-after-surge-in-gang-violence .20 August 2014