Eastern Cape premier, Oscar Mabuyane, says that the provincial government has built over 100 schools across the province since he was appointed to the office in 2019.
According to Mabuyane, 20 of these schools were built in areas under Alfred Nzo District, 20 in OR Tambo District, 17 in Chris Hani District, 15 in Amathole District, nine in Joe Gqabi District and four in the Sarah Baartman District.
Mabuyane made the remarks as he delivered his last State of the Province Address (SOPA) of the sixth administration, ahead of the general elections scheduled for May 29.
The address took place at Abbotsford Christian Centre in East London on February 22.
“When we came into office in 2019, we were tasked by the people of the Eastern Cape to do seven things that could help us build the Eastern Cape we want. One of those tasks was to improve the performance of our education system.
“Our matric pass rate was at 56.8 percent in 1994. In response to this problem, successive administrations have focused on improving our teaching and learning environment. We sustained investments in core education infrastructure by building schools, providing scholar transport, school nutrition, quality teacher training, deployment of technological solutions and the early delivery of learning and teaching material,” said Mabuyane.
“As a testament to the success of these efforts, the matric pass rate in the Eastern Cape has been on a rapid increase since 2019. With a partial decline in 2020 and 2021, we have been registering a four percent increase in the pass rate year-on-year. Accordingly, we have reached the 80 percent mark for the first time since 1994, by achieving an 81.4 percent pass rate in 2023,” he added.
Mabuyane said government had also widened access to higher education by awarding over 5 000 bursaries to young people studying in fields that are in line with the economic development priorities of the government.
He also announced that the Premier’s Top Achievers Bursary Award has been named the Dr Soyisile Nuku Scholarship in honour of the late Dr Nuku who passed away recently following a short illness.
Dr Nuku was acting Head of Department at the Eastern Cape Department of Education at the time of his passing.
Besides achievements in education, Mabuyane said that the provincial government had also improved the quality of healthcare, with the province seeing a decline in new HIV infections and increased access to anti-retroviral therapy, as well as improved life expectancy for women from 56 years in 2001 to 67 years in 2021.
Mabuyane said that the provincial government had built 24 000 houses in the past five years, with families in urban and rural areas now having proper shelter over their heads.
“A central tenet of our liberation struggle was to give human dignity to all our people, including the pursuit of decent living. This includes promoting access to formal housing for all households.
“In this regard, we worked tirelessly over the past 30 years to provide houses and housing subsidies to a large number of our people.
“As a result, Eastern Cape households who reside in formal dwellings significantly increased from 48 percent in 1996 to 83.6 percent in 2022,” he said.
