A gloomy Xmas wish

IF Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has a conscience she must be going through a spooky festive season.

This gloom has probably also enveloped the country.

Motshekga sounded the siren on December 17 when she revealed to Parliament that four million pupils would still be without desks and pit toilets would remain an eyesore.

Somebody pinch us. We never expected such drivel from the educated mouth of a mother and president of the ANC Women's League - nogal.

Motshekga and her ilk backed themselves into a corner since 1994 when they contested leadership positions with a promise to deliver services and better the lot of our children - levelling the playing field.

Yet 16 years after our democracy apartheid-disadvantaged schools are still crying out for an equal opportunity.

Because if Motshekga can say without flinching that there are no desks and toilets, what hope is there for laboratories or computer centres?

Saying it before the new school year tells us we can expect another year of abject results from poor schools in 2011.

Is Motshekga telling us that education is for kids whose parents can afford private schools?

Has the minister forgotten her mandate to liberate the country from the discrimination of the past regime?

Are we being told that nothing can be done to redress the past? Our hearts go out to communities who are trapped in the situation.

The country is in distress.

A leader who bears such hopeless Christmas wishes deserves the heave-ho.