THE USELESSNESS OF POST - 94 SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION.

#WILLDERNESSPIECE. VI

THE USELESSNESS OF POST - 94 SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION. ESPECIALLY FOR BLACKS.

There is an illusion that is embedded in the minds of many [black] South Africans who do not know any better. That, without the ANC, we would still be stuck with the unshakeable, rusty chains of Bantu Education.

Bantu Education, which, as we know, was designed to give blacks an education that was of inferior quality to that of their white counterparts.

Yet, as evil and racist this Bantu Education [together with Missionary schooling] was; it managed to yield a very successful black middle class that consisted of formidable doctors, lawyers, judges, business owners, academics, writers, musicians, teachers, nurses, and clerks.

This success was so apparent that in the 1980’s [The proportion of black students progressing at universities was higher in the 1980s than it was in 2017]; we had the highest number of black university graduates who not only managed to get jobs after graduating.

They also managed to secure prestigious scholarships in Western [overseas] universities to advance not only their education, but also their careers.

[Today, black university students are barely finishing university; mostly due to difficulties with comprehending university material, English, finances and general socio-economic disparities which impair many on campuses].

It was this era of [Pre-94] education that produced the likes of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Steve Biko, Patrice Mostepe, Cyril Ramaphosa and Thabo Mbeki.

Then the miracle of 1994 finally arrives. The ANC enters government and institutes education policies that not only pretended to advance black people. But indeed crippled them every step of the way, with the sole intent of producing a sterile populace that is totally incapable of doing anything other than to consume social welfare, debt, and government failure.

With a youth unemployment rate that is gradually reaching 60%, one would expect that the road to Bulawayo was not as easy and delightfully pursued [by the ANC through its ill-fated policies].

A 2017 study revealed that over 70% of Grade 4
learners cannot read. In 10 years, they will be eligible voters whose sole understanding of good governance will be measured by being broke, illiterate and unemployed.

Especially when about 70% of South African youth [20 million people] are more likely to be victims and perpetrators of assault, robbery and property theft than adults [35 years and above].

With no plan or budget; criminal mastermind – President Jacob Zuma – announced that university education shall be free for poor and working class students. Other than the announcement being absolutely unfeasible, since we are so broke, thanks to him and his Gupta Colonial masters.

There are no jobs in South Africa, even for graduates.

With over 3.5 million unemployed youth, only 170 000 of them are graduates. At this rate, we are hastily entering the stage where a South African university degree, just like the Zimbabwean Dollar, will be a worthless piece of paper, glittered with vain and pompous proclamations.

It will not even be able to buy you a single grain of dirty white rice. Much less get you a job as a janitor at a local city library; because you will be competing with PHD graduates waiting in line for the same job.

Almost like the recently released fantasy by Basic Minister of Education, Angie Motsheka, that the 2017 Matric pass rate is 75.1%. When in fact it is a mere 37%.

In 2015, over 40% of Grade 10 learners either failed or were derailed as South African trains tend to do nowadays. While over 47% of [enrolled] Matriculants dropped out before writing their 2017 final exams. Thus, the number produced by the Department is erroneously not reflective of this depressing reality.

Regardless of what discredited race-gluttons [whose primary purpose in life is to chase the very evasive ghosts of White Privilege, Decolonisation, Land-grabbing and White Monopoly Capital] say. The ANC, via its unfailing black majority vote, not only fatefully failed [mostly poor, uneducated and illiterate] black people.

It also failed to use education as a tool to create a [black] educated class that is effectively able to create product, [national] wealth and jobs. Instead of being educated butlers with good English.

The so-called black business class we have today is mostly made-up of parochial, shortsighted, floral shirts and shiny suit-wearing, street-hustle contractors who get huge tenders from the ANC government just to distribute free sanitary towels to rural schools.

Or to build futile RDP houses that have to be rebuilt twice before being open for owners to live in them.

If not, then through political connections and narrow BEE privileges, they sit as executive shareholders on boards for white-owned companies. Just like Cyril Ramaphosa did with his Shanduka Group and their stake in the [now declining] platinum mining giant, Lonmin.

Perhaps, only after we have successfully destroyed all that is left to sustain South Africa, like Mugabe did with his suicidal socialist [and racist] policies. Will we realise that in order to rebuild a truly prosperous South Africa, we will need to reverse everything the ANC has done, particularly with education.

We will also need to begin by yielding a focus on producing more artisans, mechanics, technicians, plumbers, manufacturers and engineers. These skills do not require expensive university education, but [currently underfunded] Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

With an additional socio-economic focus that is anchored on investment in manufacturing, and free-market based capitalism.

This is how countries like Germany, Japan, Singapore and even China continue to make everything the world [including South Africa] consumes. From cars, home appliances, clothing, computers, smart phones and even African dashikis!

Not everyone has as a glorified Life Orientation [Sociology or Social Justice] degree in China or South Korea. They can show you how to make a shoe or produce a brand new car battery.

This is the direction South Africa desperately needs.

Yet, as long as we are led by the ANC, we will never see prosperity. What else can we expect from a useless, failing ANC-driven Post-1994 South African Education?

© 2018 Dumisa Mbuwa
All rights reserved.