AN UNDESIRABLE LESSON FOR ALL

Members of Parliament have scored a major political goal with their resolution to force the Education Minister Lady Mabuza to stop schools from demanding payment of 2020 fees from parents and refund those who had paid, where applicable.

In essence, the minister now needs to set up a COVID-19 Relief Fund for schools to cater for 2020 expenses and refunds. A great relief for parents no doubt, but it leaves the minister with a bigger headache than that of getting schools to be COVID-19 safety compliant. There is no denying that the ministry brought this decision upon itself by issuing a directive forcing all parents to pay 2020 fees without ascertaining where it were to be applicable and failing to take into account the impact of COVID-19 on the livelihoods of parents. MPs have responded likewise.

This decision warrants a vigorous verification exercise of the 2020 expenses claims by school committees and head teachers as advised by the minister, which could take months for a ministry that is notorious for delaying the release of funds to schools. These delays are bound to cause undesirable consequences, which will most certainly pit teachers against parents.

reopening

This is not the reopening of schools our children would have wanted after a year without school. Nevertheless, it presents Cabinet with an opportunity to review some of its budget allocations and come up with a supplementary budget for reallocation of funds. Our MPs, who are riding the crest of the popularity wave, could also prove more useful by reviewing some of the budget allocations they have approved without fully applying themselves. They seem to be learning from their mistakes with the recommendation to freeze an allocation to the International Convention Centre and Five Star Hotel (ICC&FISH) project until they get full accountability, albeit several billions of Emalangeni too late, but they have an opportunity to fix things with the current budget and a good place to start would be a review of the army budget allocation among other non-priority sectors.

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