By Sue Maclennan
Classes will resume at public schools in Makana and Ndlambe from Wednesday 23 February. This comes after around 180 parents, Education Assistants (EAs), General School Assistants (GSAs) and teachers met at the Department of Education’s Grahamstown Cluster Management Centre in Makhanda, under the umbrella of the SGB Forum.
The SGB Forum is the group that called for the shutdown on 16 February after the Department of Education’s failure to correctly and timeously pay EAs and GSAs and to provide stationery, among other grievances. The stationery shortages and payment failures were a province-wide situation.
A shutdown of urban centres across the Eastern Cape by taxi associations would have added momentum to the initiative. Associations under Santaco – the South African National Taxi Association – were set to strike because of the Province’s failure to fully pay scholar transport providers; however, a meeting with Premier Oscar Mabuyane last weekend saw the action suspended for seven days, pending payment.
Chairperson of the SGB Forum, Nosigqibo Soxujwa, said last week that the newly formed body intended to join the National Association of School Governing Bodies. The SGB Forum comprises some parents, teachers, EAs and GSAs from at least 20 schools in the Makana and Ndlambe municipal areas that fall under the Department of Education’s Grahamstown Cluster Management Centre.
Following a four-hour meeting of the SGB Forum, Soxujwa told SmilingSouth, “Today we evaluated progress since we embarked on the shutdown. After reportbacks from various areas, we discovered that many of the issues that led to the shutdown are in the process of being resolved.
“Most schools received stationery, most schools received payment for the EAs – and those were top of our demands,” Soxujwa said. “We had a long list of grievances, but the two major ones were stationery, and the EAs. I think that by the 25th, all the EAs will be paid.”
Public schools in Makana and Ndlambe have been affected to varying extents by the SGB Forum’s shutdown, with principals, particularly at no-fee township schools, reporting poor or no attendance up to Tuesday.
Soxujwa confirmed that normal schooling would resume on Wednesday 23 February.
The SGB Forum’s Secretary, Wandile Ngcobo, from Port Alfred, said, “We wanted to make sure our children were in a safe environment and were getting enough school books for learning and teaching. We are happy that at least now the Department has responded to us.
“Tomorrow they are going back to school and teaching and learning will continue. We’re excited to be having our children back at school and for teachers to be doing their jobs again.”
SmilingSouth 
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