- 2.6 Post provisioning in the Eastern Cape
- While admissions were taking centre stage in Gauteng, the provision and distribution of staff to schools grabbed the limelight in the Eastern Cape. Departmental proposals saw some schools losing as many as six, eight or even 10 posts, and no measure of finality had emerged by the time school budgets were finalised. This completely untenable situation placed the Foundation in an extremely difficult position - having to choose between alternatives which ensured a greater measure of justice and equity on the one hand, but which included the seeds of impracticality, non-sustainability and significant educational instability on the other. We have tried to fashion a response which leads to greater justice, but does so without damaging or destroying some very good schools, or totally destabilising the system in the process. In this we have been joined by one of the most significant and most-involved civil society organisations in the Eastern Cape, the Legal Resources Centre, but yet again, by the opening of schools in 2017, and despite our attendance at a number of meetings, even into the holiday period, no finality had been reached.
- 2.6 Standoffs in KwaZulu-Natal

While the above battles were playing themselves out in two of our most populous provinces, schools in KwaZulu-Natal found themselves confronted with an untenable number of attempts by the largest teacher union in that province, aided and abetted by a significant number of provincial officials, either to undermine or to remove completely the role of parent representatives in the appointment of staff. The process was, in a number of schools, unilaterally "taken over" by departmental officials; officials and unionists colluded in strait-jacketing the interview process; and appointments were rendered ineffective by the calling of endless (and usually spurious) grievances against decisions made. Officials in the KZN Department of Education, with whom we had built positive relationships, were replaced, and then replaced again, and as a consequence we have been unable even to meet formally with the education leaders in the province, let alone build any meaningful relationships with them, or garner any standing with or exert any influence on the thought processes of the new leadership. Rectifying this state of affairs will need to be a high priority in the province as we go into 2017.

- 2.7 Amendments to the South African Schools Act
- 2015 saw a number of attacks across the board on the autonomy and rights of governing bodies and schools; and a draft version of proposed amendments to the South African Schools Act which was made available to us in late 2015, provided little for our comfort. We worked hard in the last two months of that year in bringing our misgivings and alternative approaches to the attention of leading opinion-formers in government and the governing party. The extent to which our inputs led to a reconsideration of the issues will probably never be known, but suffice it to say that, despite numerous rumours of impending publication of the revised act, this has still not occurred. At the same time we, as governing body associations, have an undertaking from the National Minister of Education that she will not proceed with the legislative process until we have had insight into whatever proposals are eventually decided upon, and have had a further opportunity to make inputs into the proposed legislation.
- 2.8 Confidentiality and transparency
- Conflict around how one balances these two conflicting imperatives has been bubbling beneath the surface for some time. We have obtained legal guidance on the matter, and generally speaking, sanity has prevailed in the disputes that have arisen. Late in 2016, however, it appeared that we may be heading for a court showdown in this regard. Despite explanations, discussions, elucidations and requests for balance, we have one particular party demanding total transparency on issues related to staff remuneration and their related appointment and appraisal procedures. We have been heavily involved in the process up to now and are continuing to attempt to bring some reasonableness to the process, but this is yet another of the burning issues from 2016, that will be carried forward into the new year for finalisation.
- 2.9 The fracas around the Annual National Assessments (ANAs)
- Teacher unions on the one hand, and Minister of Education, Angie Motshekga, and her departmental officials on the other, ended 2015 on difficult terms. The unions had all but killed off the Annual National Assessments (other than the matric exam) in their current form. Discussions continued well into 2016, and though we had made inputs early in the process, governing body associations were eventually excluded from the