IT is no secret that public sector basic education in South Africa is in poor shape. In its latest Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum rates South African primary schools 132nd out of 144 countries, and 115th in access to primary school education. It has also found that the system is failing to achieve basic standards of numeracy and literacy in Grades 3 and 6. Yet, the denial last year by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga that there is a crisis in basic education still stands. Nationally, between 2000 and 2010, the number of public schools fell 9% while the number of independent schools rose 44%, accounting for about 5% of pupils undergoing basic education at the country’s 2,500 independent schools, according to the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa. Umalusi, the government’s quality assurance agency, says there are about 3,500 independent schools registered. The number of unregistered schools is not known. Nonetheless, the state of education is of grave concern and it affects everyone in the country, says Ms Krystallidis. The problems originate in two areas, she says. The first is delivery of equipment, material and infrastructure and, second and most important, is the quality of teaching. “The education system is not producing enough teachers and those teachers who enter the field are often ill prepared for their task. Teacher training should be focused much more on practical experience. Education students should be sent to more and different schools. “Second, the poor calibre of teachers is a deep malaise. What we have is a dumbing down of teachers. Teachers must realise that they are the key to success (in basic education). They should take far greater academic responsibility.” South Africa has a high-cost, low-performance education system that does not compare favourably with education systems in other African countries, or in similar developing economies. There is a multitude of well-publicised problems, including a shortage of teachers, underqualified teachers and poor teacher performance. In the classroom, this results in poor learner standards and results, a lack of classroom

discipline and is exacerbated by insufficient resources and inadequate infrastructure. On a government level, difficulties have been caused by a failure of appropriate inspection and monitoring, and confusion caused by changing curricula without proper communication and training. All this has lead to massive demoralisation and disillusionment among teachers and a negative and worsening perception of the teaching profession. Recently appointed director of the Centre for Education Policy Development (CEPD) and former director and acting chief director for the National Department of Education Management and Governance, Martin Prew, does not beat about the bush when reviewing the challenges of the new departments of education. “We have to go back to basics,” he insists. A close inspection of school data shows that of the 100 pupils that start grade one, 50 will drop-out before Grade 12 (most of which happens in grade 10 and 11), 40 will pass the NSC exam and 12 will qualify for university. Given that the NSC is the only externally evaluated, nationally standardised exam in the South African school system, grade progression in primary and lower-secondary school is an unreliable indicator of actual learning. Many pupils proceed to higher grades without acquiring foundational skills in numeracy and literacy. As the NSC exam approaches, schools and teachers can no longer afford to promote pupils who have not acquired the grade appropriate skills, and consequently pupils fail and drop-out of schools in large numbers in Grade 10 and 11 as schools weed out the weaker pupils. Analysis of other datasets like TIMSS verifies this, showing that Grade Nine pupils from quintile one and two schools are performing at least three years behind quintile five Grade Nine pupils. 1. Poor quality schooling at the primary and secondary level in South Africa severely limit the youth’s capacity to exploit further training opportunities. As a result, existing skills deficiencies among those who are the product of an underperforming school system (predominantly black youth) are likely to persist.

2. South Africa’s narrow youth unemployment rate of 50 per cent is staggeringly high, both in the context of far lower average global and sub-Saharan youth unemployment rates and in terms of the country’s already high aggregate narrow unemployment rate of 25 per cent. 3. The per centage of 18-24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) has increased from about 30 per cent in 1995 to 45 per cent in 2011, while the percentage enrolled in education has decreased from 50 per cent to 36 per cent and the percentage of youths in employment remained fairly constant at between 17 per cent and 19 per cent. As such, there appears to have been a shift away from participation in education in favour of either economic inactivity or unemployment among the youth. 4. Youth unemployment in the country is not only high, but has risen precipitously since 2008, following a national trend of worsening unemployment. Moreover, the nature of unemployment experienced by the youth appears to be becoming more severe in terms of an increase in the proportion of unemployed youths that have never worked and the proportion that have been looking for work for more than a year. 5. For the youth, passing the NSC exam does not provide sufficient assurance against becomingunemployed, nor does it markedly increase one’s chances of procuring employment relative to 18-24-year-olds that have lower levels of educational attainment. Instead, the value of passing the NSC exam lies in opening up the opportunity to acquire some form of tertiary education qualification. 6. Though the unemployment rates for 18-24-year-olds with tertiary qualifications are much lower than those for youth’s with the NSC or less, they are nevertheless high in relation to South Africa’s overall unemployment rate. 7. 6. South Africa has some of the least-knowledgeable primary school mathematics teachers in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of these maths teachers, especially those that serve poor and rural communities, have below-basic levels of content knowledge. In many instances these teachers cannot answer questions their pupils are required to answer according to the curriculum. 8. In short, poor school performance in South Africa reinforces social inequality and leads to a situation where children inherit the social station of their parents, irrespective of their motivation or ability. Until such a time as the DBE and the ruling administration are willing to seriously address the underlying issues in South African education, at whatever political or economic cost, the existing patterns of underperformance and inequality will remain unabated.

At universities, the government is now operating an increasingly stringent quota system. Medical schools, veterinary departments, legal departments, dentistry, and architecture, are operating on quotas. So for instance to be able to get into medical school, at matric Blacks require a mark above 72, coloureds (mixed race) and Indians above 78, and Whites above 92 in order to enter medical and veterinary school. And remember the additional marks are also added, so a Black could be getting into medical school with an actual mark of 62. Other areas of higher education are not on such a strict quota system, but the pressure to reduce educational opportunities for Whites is escalating as the national democratic revolution expands. At university, lecturers are being judged according to the number of Blacks that they manage to pass. In past 2 years, since Zuma came to power, the pressure has increased substantially so that lecturers are being forced to simply pass a number of Blacks irrespective of their actual ability. I know a number of lecturers who have resigned in disgust, and know some who continue because they simply need the money but struggle with their sense of integrity. The consequences are becoming increasingly apparent. South African doctors used to be able to work in the UK without taking any extra exams, but that is no longer true because of the deterioration in the quality of the degree. Another anti-White policy since Zuma is the racial displacement of lecturers. Basically no White lecturer can now be added to the faculty at government universities. Those who are already working can keep their jobs, but none additional may be employed (although there is always some manipulation of the system if you have the necessary contacts). There are not sufficient SA Blacks to fill the posts. The response of the recruiters is to seek lecturers from places like India, whom they regard favourably but are expensive, or from African countries such as Nigeria whom they view as basically lazy and incompetent but they have no choice over. Any Black from the rest of Africa is favoured over a White South African. Because the management of universities is also being racially cleansed, the level of incompetence is increasing by orders of magnitude. The mood of pessimism and cynicism amongst lecturers for all except the most liberal is extreme. Universities are giving professional counseling to provide some recompense for the situation. Similar racial displacement (transformation) rules are now prevalent in private industry, government, and para-statal organisations (Quangos for the British) also as the government pursues its national democratic revolution (Black fascism?) . The racial cleansing of departments means that, even if competent people are employed as consultants, the ability for the organization to learn and improve is being lost. There is not an understanding that in destroying the system you are destroying the prospects for all. The consequence will be that in a generation, South Africa will go into a terminal decline without the ability to revive itself Hofmeester, who is also the vice-president of Sadtu, said according to reports, 22% of pupils in South Africa had been threatened with violence, assaulted, robbed or sexually assaulted at school. She said deploying police was a short-term solution as contributing factors went beyond just the school gates. Principals needed to be able to deal with societal issues in the communities they worked in. The National School Violence study revealed that learners were perpetrators of 90% of the violence that happens in schools, whether against other learners or teachers,” she said. Apartheid’s “Bantu Education” was Better than Now, Says Leading South African Black Academic Rabelani Dagada, author, Development Economist, Information Technologist and Knowledge Management Specialist based at the Business School of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, shocked attendees at a recent debate on the anti-white racism code-named “affirmative action” by telling them that the education currently provided by the black government had deteriorated to the worst in Africa. “It (Apartheid education) was far better in terms of quality than the education that our kids are receiving nowadays,” Dagada said. “After 20 years of democracy, the education levels have plunged. It’s worse than the so-called Bantu education.” Dagada’s comments echo a 2010 report by Britain’s BBC reporter Hugh Sykes, who found a large number of blacks living in shanty-towns in South Africa who also complained that “Some things were better under apartheid.” Dagada, who has achieved all sorts of awards and honors, has good reason to be pessimistic. Of the 1.1 million black children who were born in 1994 and later entered first grade, fewer than half made it far enough to take the final school graduation exam. Of those who did, the percentage who passed was 73.9%, up from 70.2% in 2012. But this figure hides the fact that the passing levels are little short of moronic. Students in South Africa must pass six to earn their diploma, called a National Senior Certificate. However, in order to pass, they need only to receive scores of 40% on three exams and 30% on three others. “I find it hard to get excited over … results,” tweeted the editor of South Africa’s Financial Mail magazine, Barney Mthombothi. “As long as pass mark is 30% … we’re fooling nobody but ourselves.” As the far leftist Mail and Guardian newspaper in Johannesburg commented: “The measure of a successful education is whether students are leaving school both literate and numerate, and are able to learn new skills as they enter the work force, or learn new concepts once they enter higher education. It’s doubtful whether a student with a 35% average would be successful on any of those counts.” The Mail and Guardian went on to explain that even these poor results had been artificially boosted with what is known in South Africa as “mark adjustments.” This practice of “mark adjustments” works like this, according to the Mail and Guardian: “Each year the state’s quality assurance body Umalusi analyses the results to ensure they are kept in line with the previous year’s performances. If needed, the raw marks are adjusted to remove inconsistencies that might creep in during the examination process or due to external factors.” Recently, it was reported that only 5% of black and colored students who enter higher education (university level in South Africa) complete their studies. The collapse in South African educational standards was dramatically revealed in what was described as a “candid affidavit” by the head of the Eastern Cape education department filed in court in response to a legal case. According to the affidavit, made by head of department Mthunywa Ngonzo, his department is an utter failure, with no decision-making capability, poor leadership and no financial controls. He said that it was this sorry state that prohibited the department from filling thousands of vacant posts for teachers. Other admissions by Ngonzo include: * “The department has been characterised by challenged leadership and governance for the past 16 years, with 13 heads of department, six MECs [political chiefs] and multiple chief financial officers”; * There are poor or nonexistent financial controls; * “The department has never had appropriate or fully functional decision-making structures”; * It lacks information on how many teachers it employs and what their qualifications are; and * The province has one head office and 23 district offices, 13 of which are dysfunctional. The chaos is not limited to that province. Last year, more than 5000 school textbooks were found dumped in Majeje, in the Phalaborwa region. Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ronel Otto said the books were dumped in an open veld and were in a good condition. “The between 5,000 to 6,000 books range from Grade 0 to Grade 9 for various subjects,” Otto said. Some grades in Limpopo received textbooks seven months after the school year started, while others were still waiting. The real reason for the collapse in education is of course, racial. According to all objective tests, the average IQ in South Africa is 66 for blacks, 83 for Indians, 82 for “Coloreds” (mixed race) and 94 for whites.

Three more schools were torched yesterday in Malamulele, Limpopo, as the community continued to demand that they be granted their own municipality

Apartheid’s “Bantu Education” was Better than Now, Says Leading South African Black Academic

The much-decried “Bantu Education”€ system under Apartheid was better than what South Africa currently offers school children, a leading black academic has announced. Rabelani Dagada, author, Development Economist, Information Technologist and Knowledge Management Specialist based at the Business School of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, shocked attendees at a recent debate on the anti-white racism code-named “affirmative action” by telling them that the education currently provided by the black government had deteriorated to the worst in Africa. “€œIt (Apartheid education) was far better in terms of quality than the education that our kids are receiving nowadays, Dagada said. “After 20 years of democracy, the education levels have plunged. It’€™s worse than the so-called Bantu education.” Dagada’s comments echo a 2010 report by Britain’€™s BBC reporter Hugh Sykes, who found a large number of blacks living in shanty-towns in South Africa who also complained that “€œSome things were better under apartheid.”€ Dagada, who has achieved all sorts of awards and honors, has good reason to be pessimistic. Of the 1.1 million black children who were born in 1994 and later entered first grade, fewer than half made it far enough to take the final school graduation exam. Of those who did, the percentage who passed was 73.9%, up from 70.2% in 2012. But this figure hides the fact that the passing levels are little short of moronic. Students in South Africa must pass six to earn their diploma, called a National Senior Certificate. However, in order to pass, they need only to receive scores of 40% on three exams and 30% on three others. “I find it hard to get excited over ” results,”€ tweeted the editor of South Africa’€™s Financial Mail magazine, Barney Mthombothi. “As long as pass mark is 30% €we’€™re fooling nobody but ourselves.”€

As the far leftist Mail and Guardian newspaper in Johannesburg commented: “The measure of a successful education is whether students are leaving school both literate and numerate, and are able to learn new skills as they enter the work force, or learn new concepts once they enter higher education. It’€™s doubtful whether a student with a 35% average would be successful on any of those counts. The Mail and Guardian went on to explain that even these poor results had been artificially boosted with what is known in South Africa as €œmark adjustments. This practice of “mark adjustments€ works like this, according to the Mail and Guardian: “Each year the state’€™s quality assurance body Umalusi analyses the results to ensure they are kept in line with the previous year’s performances. If needed, the raw marks are adjusted to remove inconsistencies that might creep in during the examination process or due to external factors. Recently, it was reported that only 5% of black and colored students who enter higher education (university level in South Africa) complete their studies. The collapse in South African educational standards was dramatically revealed in what was described as a ‘candid affidavit’ by the head of the Eastern Cape education department filed in court in response to a legal case. According to the affidavit, made by head of department Mthunywa Ngonzo, his department is an utter failure, with no decision-making capability, poor leadership and no financial controls. He said that it was this sorry state that prohibited the department from filling thousands of vacant posts for teachers. Other admissions by Ngonzo include: The department has been characterised by challenged leadership and governance for the past 16 years, with 13 heads of department, six MECs [political chiefs] and multiple chief financial officers; * There are poor or nonexistent financial controls; *The department has never had appropriate or fully functional decision-making structures; * It lacks information on how many teachers it employs and what their qualifications are; and The province has one head office and 23 district offices, 13 of which are dysfunctional. The chaos is not limited to that province. Last year, more than 5000 school textbooks were found dumped in Majeje, in the Phalaborwa region. Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Ronel Otto said the books were dumped in an open veld and were in a good condition. The between 5,000 to 6,000 books range from Grade 0 to Grade 9 for various subjects, Otto said.

Some grades in Limpopo received textbooks seven months after the school year started, while others were still waiting.

The real reason for the collapse in education is of course, racial. According to all objective tests, the average IQ in South Africa is 66 for blacks, 83 for Indians, 82 for ‘Coloreds’ (mixed race) and 94 for whites.

“Gat kruiping ANC’s Rubbish Education is training Racist and Sexist BARBARIANS” – Jansen, FreeSate Uni Posted on 08/21/2015

Professor Jona­than Jansen has told state educationalists that they have all become complacent with “this rubbish we call education”.

Outspoken academic Professor Jona­than Jansen says it is pointless introducing Mandarin in South African schools, when they cannot teach local languages. The vice-chancellor and rector of the University of the Free State pulled no punches during a speech in Durban on Wednesday, saying the state’s declared intention to offer Mandarin at South African schools was nothing more than “political gat kruiping” (brown nosing).

Jansen told the assembled academics that they were “training barbarians who are racist and sexist”.

He said until the country got the basics right, making the system “fancy”, by introducing tablets into classrooms, for example, would not work.

Jansen was addressing the AGM of the KZN Central Applications Office, which was attended by leaders from the province’s four universities and a number of private colleges.

“I don’t see the need for introducing Mandarin when we can’t seem to teach English, Afrikaans and Zulu first properly. Bringing in Mandarin is political gat kruiping,” he said.

While falling short of calling for a complete overhaul of the education system, Jansen said educationists had allowed “failure to become the new norm”.

Known for his bluntness and dislike of political correctness, he said one university in the province “continued to dish out a type of Bantu education”.

“You have all become complacent with this rubbish we call education. You have become institutionalised by keeping a dysfunctional system afloat.”

However, while acknowledging that the universities had challenges, he said the “base of education is extremely weak”.

“We need a long-term plan to get out of this mess. We should be thinking like Singapore who look 20 years ahead, but instead we only see tomorrow. Our role models are also these dysfunctional people in Parliament, when they should be Steve Biko or Robert Sobukwe. [Instead] we are training barbarians who are racist and sexist. They may be trained [in a subject or career], but they are not educated.”

He said the violent demonstrations held at universities annually by students was the result of a “lack of education”, and was not entirely the students’ fault because they had not been given the education required to make rational decisions.

He said the country had a “lazy culture”, investing heavily in education but obtaining poor results.

Last year, the government signed an agreement with China to roll out a Mandarin programme over the next decade, while in March the state gazetted Mandarin to be listed as a second additional language.

Basil Manuel, president of teaching union Naptosa, said while teachers were still coming to terms with the relatively new CAPS curriculum, piling more into the system would make it harder to get the basics right.

“We are still coming to terms with introducing indigenous languages in schools. This should be a priority, or are we becoming another Chinese province?”

He said the resources would be better spent on developing indigenous languages.

Education expert Les Stanley, who works with rural schools in the Midlands, said getting back to basics was absolutely necessary.

“On the ground there are huge issues. Children learning English in rural areas are already struggling, not because they aren’t intelligent but because they lack basic resources such as libraries.

Our focus needs to be rather on creating analytical minds. The introduction of Mandarin has dumbfounded me,” he said.

George van der Ross, CEO of the applications office, urged the provincial tertiary institutions to be open with the KZN Education Department and put pressure on the department to ensure that pupils studied maths and not maths literacy.

He also called on the universities to seek alternative methods of funding, away from the state, revealing that 60-80% of all students were on financial aid.

Questions sent to the KZN Education Department were not answered at the time of going to press.

That shitty Rhodes statue: what students think of the UCT poo protest

Raeesa Pather in Voices March 13, 2015

On Monday, UCT student Chumani Maxwele threw human excrement at the statue of Cecil John Rhodes to protest against institutional racism, white privilege and the lack of transformation at the university. Maxwele, the SRC president Ramabina Mahapa, and other students told RA’EESA PATHER what they make of the protest.

Chumani MaxweleChumani Maxwele, 30, protestor

It took me a year to take that stand. The black resistance continues; there’s a history behind our actions and we should acknowledge those who came before us, such as Prof AC Jordan and Archie Mafeje. We love UCT, we love white people; and vice chancellor Max Price has acknowledged that the university could do more to reflect the diversity of students on campus. But we know that he won’t take a stand until black students and black staff take a stand. The only thing we want is a date when Cecil John Rhodes will fall.

Ramabina MahapaRamabina Mahapa, 23, SRC president, stays in residence

The SRC was not involved in the protest. We were called down because there was a man putting poo on the statue. When I asked him why he was protesting, he mentioned white privilege, white domination at UCT, and the lack of transformation. When you walk around UCT, the statues are predominantly of white males, so there’s a lack of representation in terms of gender and race. On a picture outside the library, there’s a black man with his genitalia exposed, a small white girl, and another African man. In African culture, you can’t have a small child – whether black or white – looking at a naked black man. The institutional symbolism around UCT doesn’t say “black child, be proud”. The SRC doesn’t condone behaviour such as the protestors’, but we are understanding of where the student came from and his frustration. If the university doesn’t respond to the student’s concerns, the student is bound to go beyond the rules and procedures to get his voice heard.

Lubabalo Mdintsi, 19, stays in residence

From what I was told, it was protesting against racism and Cecil John Rhodes. I don’t know about throwing faeces and what kind of message that sends, but the historical lie as far as Rhodes being a revolutionary in Africa goes, is just that: a lie. He enslaved the continent and then changed history to such an extent that he was seen as a revolutionist. Throwing faeces gets people’s attention, which I suppose was the goal, but there are probably better ways to do it. The problem is, when you go radical a lot of times it turns people away, and people usually dumb it down to ignorance. I would rather it be about education. That statue will probably never go away. It’s been 21 years of democracy and zero years of equality. People say that non-white people are in power, but they don’t realise the ripple effect that such a long line of oppression has had on the larger population. People say you’re at UCT, you’re privileged, but you will only see the results of it in two generations’ time.

Anees CozynAnees Cozyn, 20, Schaapkraal

I saw a majority of black Africans and one white girl protesting, but I don’t know what they were protesting about. Throwing faeces is inhumane and immature, especially at an educational institution like UCT. I don’t know why they’re doing that here. I don’t think there is racism at UCT – everyone is welcoming even though we’re all from different backgrounds. Protesting against the statue doesn’t have any relevance, because that was in the past – even if Cecil John Rhodes did colonise everyone, it was long ago and it’s over now.

They were protesting against the Cecil John Rhodes statue and how it represents things we shouldn’t be reminded of every day at UCT – such as colonialism and apartheid. There should be a plaque up saying what the university believes it should be there for, so that it’s clear for everyone what the statue actually is memorialising. It represents something different for some people, but from the university’s perspective there needs to be a clear understanding of what the university wants it there for. The throwing of faeces was necessary. If they had done what was expected and followed the rules, it wouldn’t get attention. If you want to bring change, the big thing is attention. The only bad thing is that someone had to clean the faeces off the statue. The person who threw it could have cleaned it up themselves, but then that kind of defeats the purpose. The university probably won’t cave, because then it shows that not following the rules will get students what they want, which might encourage others to break the rules. All images by Ra’eesa Path

UCT students to protest over racial transformation

Rhodes statue represents Eurocentric, narrow-minded racism – poo protester

2015-03-09

Cape Town – A bucket of faeces thrown on a statue of Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has escalated protests over racial transformation.

UCT student activists who staged the “poo protest” want the statue torn down, calling it a symbol of white oppression.

They are planning a protest march on Friday after 10 days of mounting controversy over the faecal attack.

The university campus was built on land donated by Rhodes, a mining magnate and champion of British imperialism in the late 1800s, who gave his name to the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

UCT Vice Chancellor Max Price has agreed that the statue should be moved from its prominent position on campus, noting “the many injustices of colonial conquest enacted under Rhodes’ watch”.

But, he said, the decision had to be taken by the university council, and he proposed talks involving students and staff ahead of a council meeting on 15 April.

“I do not think the statue should be destroyed or hidden away. I just think it should not be there – it should be moved,” he said in a statement.

The president of the Student Representative Council, Ramabina Mahapa, described the plan as “meaningless” and demanded immediate action.

“We are still going ahead with a march on Friday,” he told Times.

Students have dismissed Rhodes’ campus bequest as an argument against removing the statue, saying the land was stolen from black Africans in the first place.

Monuments to SA’s racist white-minority rule are scattered throughout the country and are regular targets of protest.

But the discontent among some black university students goes beyond symbols to cover admission policies and the racial make-up of the teaching staff.

“University leaders make a strategic mistake to think these protests are simply about statues,” said the vice chancellor of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen.

“They are about a deeper transformation of universities – including the complexion of the professoriate – that remains largely unchanged,” he wrote in his regular newspaper column on Thursday.

Stellenbosch: The Afrikaner’s Armageddon

By Mike Smith

3rd of September 2015

I am sick of blacks and their monkey chatter they call language.

Now if you are a liberal then you probably almost had a heart attack, a stroke or you fainted after reading that statement. You probably snarled at the computer screen, calling me a “racist” and want to charge me for hate speech at the SAHRC.

Yet this is exactly what armed and violent black demonstrators did to students at Elsenburg Agricultural College. We are sick of Afrikaners and Afrikaans

They openly showed placards with the genocidal slogans, “Kill the Boer; Kill the farmer” and “One Settler; One Bullet”.

Where is the outcry about that? It is blatant hate speech against a minority group of this country.

The college management had to get a court interdict against them to resume classes. How these bastards were allowed access to the college is still not clear. They are trespassing. Why are the police not arresting them?

In the mean time the siege of Stellenbosch University is continuing. The organization “Open Stellenbosch” with the little white snot nose, rich boy Dan Corder behind it, said that “21 White males on the council cannot have the final say on transformation at Stellenbosch”.

What kind of “transformation” is this? Blacks (in fact all races) are already allowed at Stellenbosch amongst thousands of coloureds whose mother tongue is ALSO Afrikaans. The university’s language policy gives equal status to English and Afrikaans, and postgraduate classes are in English.

You don’t see Afrikaners protesting that UCT should open their doors for Afrikaners. You don’t see Afrikaners shouting “discrimination” about UCT’s English only policy to hold them out.

Even the media acknowledge it now…The revolution has started and Afrikaners are partying with closed eyes

The country has sky high levels of crime and corruption, infra structure are crumbling, the Rand is falling, unemployment the highest ever…but according to the ANC regime, Afrikaans and the people who speak the language at Stellenbosch are the biggest problems.

The writer of the above article says that the revolution against Afrikaners is a smokescreen to cover up the destruction of the country by President Jacob Zuma and his hyenas, start a fire point fingers at the “Boers” and cry “Racism”.

Yes, the old Scapegoat trick so over-played by the Communists already that it has become a cliché and the Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Wim de Villiers, is falling for it…swallowing this rubbish propaganda made by a spoiled child hook line and sinker.

Where is the President of the country condemning this hatred against Afrikaners? Clearly he is not the president of all the people of South Africa.

Nevertheless, make no mistake, the time for the Afrikaner’s Third Struggle has begun. The revolution against them is in full swing. Stellenbosch is the last outpost of the Afrikaner. It is a battle Afrikaners cannot lose. It is their Armageddon.

It is now time for the convocation, all the alumni and the student council…in fact every man and his dog, to fight back against the demons and powers of evil that have descended on Stellenbosch.

Those on the university council who do not have the wherewithal, the balls or the backbone to stand up and fight back against this Zombie scourge, should be kicked out forthwith blindfolded and put up against the nearest wall, for now is not the time for traitors and weaklings.

We stood against the mighty British Empire (twice), we stood against the mighty Zulu Empire, we stood against the mighty Communist Empire…we are still here and we will be here a thousand years from now. So help me God!

Company in textbooks scandal takes tablet contract for schools 2015-07-26

Apple iPad. (Picture provided)

Johannesburg – EduSolutions, the company that failed to deliver textbooks to schools in Limpopo, is now supplying tablet computers, laptops and e-textbooks worth R200m to schools in Gauteng.

On Monday, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi handed out 61 000 tablets to matric pupils in Soweto.

EduSolutions, which is still supplying textbooks and learning materials to schools in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, was embroiled in controversy when its contract with the Limpopo education department was suspended after the textbook scandal of 2012.

Hundreds of thousands of children had to go to school without textbooks because EduSolutions had not delivered.

The company’s new contract in Gauteng includes:

. Tablet computers worth R88m;

. Laptops worth R16m for use by teachers;

. R65m for microcomputer servers;

. Digital multimedia content worth R20m; and

. E-textbooks worth R10m.

The order in EduSolutions’ current contract stipulates that the first 375 schools in Gauteng have to be “paperless” by October 31, but experts are sceptical.

“There were serious allegations against EduSolutions. It is therefore completely improper that government is still doing business with them,” said Mark Heywood, director of Section 27, the organisation that took the Limpopo provincial education department to court to force it to deliver the outstanding textbooks.

But EduSolutions insisted it can do the job.

“Our record speaks for itself,” said Singatha Nobongoza, business manager of African Access Holdings, the holding company of EduSolutions, about the criticism.

“We have been supplying textbooks and learning materials to Gauteng schools without problems for the past 12 years,” she said.

Phumla Sekhonyane, spokesperson for the Gauteng education department, agreed.

But a senior official at one of the large school textbook publishers said there had been glitches already. She said EduSolutions had asked publishers two months ago to provide their textbooks in PDF format.

The publishing houses could not satisfy their request partly due to problems with copyright.

EduSolutions then worked around the clock to legally upload the textbooks on the first 61 000 tablets.

Tshepo Motsepe, co-head of the pressure group, Equal Education, said government was on the right track with the tablets.

“Children in poor schools also deserve the benefits of technology,” he said.

The KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape education departments are already using the technology in some classrooms.

Lesufi wants all classrooms in Gauteng online by 2017. The project will cost R17bn, said Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in January.

The Gauteng department said teachers had six weeks of training in the use of the technology. Michelle Lissoos, head of Apple’s educational arm Think Ahead, believes at least three months’ training is necessary.

EduSolutions’ contract to supply the technology is part of its existing obligation to supply textbooks and learning materials, said a spokesperson for the Gauteng education department. The contract was awarded in 2012 based on EduSolutions’ competitive quotation and its facilities for the acquisition, storing and distribution of materials.

Incredible moment riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at CHILDREN protesting over school closures in South Africa Violent demonstrations broke out in Port Elizabeth over the closure of 33 schools because of a shortage of teachers

Police also forced to deny allegations they fired live rounds after demonstrators claimed they found shell casings

By SIMON TOMLINSON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 12:27 GMT, 28 July 2015

Children and parents clashed with officers after blocking roads, burning tyres and throwing petrol bombs during violent scenes in Port Elizabeth.

Tactical response units were deployed to bring the violence under control with water cannon, stun grenades and rubber bullets fired from shot guns.

+9 Parents and pupils blockade the road with burning tyres during violent protests over the closure of 33 schools in Port Elizabeth, South Africa

+9 Parents and pupils clashed with officers after blocking roads, burning tyres and throwing petrol bombs in areas across Port Elizabeth

+9 Tactical response units (above) were deployed to bring the violence under control with water cannon, stun grenades and rubber bullets

Several officers armed with shotguns were deployed to disperse the demonstrations. Protesters claimed they also fire live rounds

Some protesters collected a number of .45-calibre bullet cartridges from the scene which they claimed were also fired at them by officers.

But the allegations have been strongly denied by the police who claim they were fired by gangsters who had infiltrated the demonstrations.

Police spokesman, Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg, told Times Live: ‘Under no circumstances was live ammunition used by the police. We suspect the cartridges were from illegal firearm owners and gangsters.

‘We have had reports from our officers on the ground that suspected gangsters fired on the police in between all the chaos.’

She said any cartridges would be sent for ballistics testing if they were handed in.

+9 Up in flames: The protests broke out just after 6am yesterday over the closure of 33 schools across the city due to a shortage of teachers

+9 The demonstrators are also angry about the poor quality of education and a lack of infrastructure at the schools in Port Elizabeth

+9 Some protesters collected a number of .45-calibre cartridges from the scene which they claimed were also fired at them by officers. But the allegations have been strongly denied by the police who claim they were fired by gangsters who had infiltrated the demonstrations The protests broke out just after 6am yesterday over the closure of 33 schools across the city due to a shortage of teachers. Parents and pupils are also angry about the poor quality of education and a lack of infrastructure at the schools. Athol Trollip, the Democratic Alliance leader in the Eastern Cape told IOL News: ‘The fact is that schools in the northern areas of Port Elizabeth have been notoriously neglected and parents cannot tolerate this affront to their children any longer. ‘These schools are dangerous places, where gangsters and criminals prey on children because school safety is utterly ignored.’

+9 Residents run for cover as police begin to disperse the demonstrations with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3177247/Incredible-moment-riot-police-fired-rubber-bullets-tear-gas-CHILDREN-protesting-school-closures-South-Africa.html#ixzz3kme7WmT5 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

One settler, one bullet? That escalated quickly.

1 September 2015

I haven’t voiced my opinions about Open Stellenbosch to date mostly, I think, because of all the friends I thought I’d lose if I aired how I really feel. Also because I take really long to form an opinion about something. But today is the day. Time to reveal what’s been building up inside me over the past few months. To the friends I’m going to lose by posting this, thanks for the great times together.

I’m deeply sorry it had to come to this. But here we are.

I was there today, supporting you guys. I heard your demands and I am completely in agreement with every single one of them.

But I left you outside Admin B this afternoon after a sequence of related events. First, one of you stood up there on the steps and shouted into a megaphone, “Good afternoon everyone! Thank you for interrupting whiteness today!”

That’s what I was doing? Who knew? I thought I was just marching against the language policy at Stellenbosch University in my lunch break but if we’re calling that ‘interrupting whiteness’ I guess I can go with it.

A few minutes later I asked my two black friends standing next to me to please translate the words of the song that was currently being sung by the crowd, as I had been doing for every song up until that point.

A moment of silence. “Erm. This is kind-of awkward,” one of them said. They exchanged an uncomfortable glance.

“What? Why? I wanna know what they’re singing. Please tell me,” I insisted.

More silence and two-way glances which did not include me.

“This one’s on you, friend,” one said to the other.

Deep breath. “Okay. What this song means is that… Well, okay. Hmmm.” This was clearly hard for her. “The first word means ‘happiness’, and then it’s like… ‘when we hit the white man’. I’m sorry, Heleen. It’s not about you. It doesn’t mean… I’m sorry.”

Oh, okay.

That was almost breaking point for me. This was not what I signed up for. Obviously I’m ignorant about the role of struggle songs in fostering a national identity blah blah blah. And I’m not gonna go into that here. This debate has been had and I don’t even remember what we all decided as a politically correct nation regarding which words are appropriate to sing and which aren’t, so there really is no need to rehash it all. I just have one thing to say on this point, and seeing as though you are such fans of using personal emotions to get a point across, Open Stellenbosch, let me tell you how it makes me feel to stand in a crowd and hear that the people all around me want to physically injure me because of the colour of my skin: it feels like my close friend has just punched me in the stomach. It feels like I am in a sea of people to whom I could never in a million years relate. It feels like I am not welcome in Stellenbosch, in South Africa, in Africa.

I didn’t leave at that point because I felt too bad for my friend who had explained the words to the song to me. She was possibly even more uncomfortable than I was and it really wasn’t her fault they were singing this song. And it’s not like she was singing along or anything. So I stayed.

“This is a purely emotional response,” I told myself. “Don’t let it get to you. They don’t mean it like that.” I tried and tried to reason my way out of my anger and discomfort. But then someone who had been standing in front of me all along turned his makeshift sign around. I had been trying to figure out what the sign said since we got there. “One sett” was all I would make out. What is that? One set of what? And then he turned it around. It turns out “one sett” had been the beginning of an attempt at a sign which had failed and had been started over on the reverse side of the poster. The second attempt was more successful.

“One settler, one bullet.”

Oh.

“Well guys, that’s just about enough for me for today.”

How did that happen? How did we go from “All classes must be available in English” to “one settler, one bullet”? Can somebody please explain that to me? What on god’s earth do equal rights to university education have to do with murdering all white South Africans? I know, I know. I’m taking it too literally again, aren’t I? He didn’t mean that, did he? Well can somebody please explain to me what he did mean? Because I cannot for the life of me imagine what else “one settler, one bullet” means, other than Africa For Africans, Kill The Boer, etc, etc. And that, Open Stellenbosch, is where you lose me.

Make Stellenbosch’s language policy such that no student or staff member is in any way disadvantaged by a lack of profiency in Afrikaans? Yes, by all means. Transform an exclusive, traditional, white student culture at Stellenbosch? Yes, sir. Fight all forms of institutionalised racism and sexism on campus? By the power vested in me, yes, yes, yes!

But THIS? Singing violent, racist struggle songs? Waving around a slogan which reminds all South Africans (or at least those who paid attention in their history lessons) of a violent, racist movement that sought not the equality and freedom of all persons that you supposedly stand for, Open Stellenbosch, but a civil war between black and white? DIFFERENT THING, BRA.

By all means, if this is your agenda, go for gold. Seriously. Do your thing. Maybe South Africa needs a civil war. I don’t know. If that’s what you think is necessary, Open Stellenbosch, then give it all you’ve got.

But do us all a favour and just be honest about it. I’ve heard it said many times that Open Stellenbosch is so brave. I couldn’t disagree more. Bravery would be standing in front of a camera and saying, “White people don’t belong in South Africa.” What you’re doing is hiding your true agenda under the very politically correct blanket of Stellenbosch’s language policy, appealing to our whole nation’s very fine-tuned sense of fairness regarding equal rights to higher education to push an agenda that asks for much, much more than that.

If I’m right, and you’re hiding your true agenda on purpose, how’s about you think about maybe growing a pair?

If I’m wrong, and your demands really are limited to English being available as a language of instruction at Stellenbosch University, then maybe you should think about what it is about the way in which you’re tackling your language movement that makes people who think it’s okay to wave signs around that say “one settler, one bullet” join your cause.

One of you once told me your agenda is just so have all subjects offered in English at Stellenbosch.

“Wow,” I said. “I didn’t realise that was all you guys are pushing for.”

“Yeah, people are often surprised by how reasonable our demands are,” you said.

You might want to ask yourselves why that is, Open Stellenbosch.

And then you might want to think about whether it helps the cause that you so tirelessly fight for to come across as a racist, violent movement that wants to get back at whites for all the times your feelings got hurt by a white person in this country.

I’m gonna go with ‘no’, but hey, what do I know, right? I’m just a white girl who clearly doesn’t understand.