Pretoria - Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has demanded a full report on the reasons there has been a delay in the delivery of textbooks for Grade 10 learners in Limpopo so that appropriate steps can be taken.
Motshekga said she had learnt with great concern of the reports of the incomplete delivery of textbooks and was taken aback by the delays by trusted service providers.
These service providers had promised to deliver the books to Limpopo schools by 15 June, as per a High Court order issued last month.
She expressed her sincere apologies to the people of Limpopo, in particular parents and learners, for the situation and assured them that the department had developed a recovery plan to make up for the time lost by learners.
"My office was informed that textbook delivery has been completed and we have been acting in good faith based on the information, only to discover this week that the information in our possession was not factual. We will now reinforce the capacity of our service providers to ensure that the textbooks are in schools as soon as possible," Motshekga said on Wednesday.
She thanked the publishers for their "sterling" work as the department received good quality in all textbooks on time. She added that the central procurement of textbooks, which was recently introduced, managed to save the Limpopo government R1 billion.
Motshekga further appealed to various stakeholders, who have done a lot of work collating information on the outstanding deliveries, to provide the department with the information to enable it to resolve the matter immediately.
"I will be in Limpopo on 22 June to meet with all education stakeholders in Limpopo to apologise for this unforeseen and unfortunate situation," the minister said.
The department took over the administration of the Limpopo Education Department in December 2011 after the department experienced systemic and management lapses.
