The department's spokesperson, Geoffrey van der Merwe, vehemently refutes information doing the rounds on social media, providing the eyebrow-raising cost the department is incurring in setting up the matric year-end camps. Van der Merwe maintains the misinformation - which focuses heavily on the Namakwa camp - is tarnishing the department’s reputation by implying officials within the department are corrupt. He says they will investigate where this information originates from within the department and officials implicated will face internal disciplinary processes. OFM News' Olebogeng Motse reports the department is now seeking legal advice with regards to the way forward.  

The department’s version of events is that arrangements for the 3-month camps, which are meant to salvage what is left of the school year, are in fact yet to be finalised. This is despite allegations indicating otherwise.  Van der Merwe says to date, no order number has been issued or service providers appointed.

The camps, which will be spread across seven location points across the province, were initially meant to have begun on August 14. In a press release dated August 11, the department revealed it would be welcoming 3000 grade 12 learners to campsites province-wide that week, in preparation for the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams. Van Der Merwe assured parents and the public at large that the department had put measures in place to safeguard the health of all educators and learners attending the camps amidst the coronavirus pandemic. These include regular screening and testing as well as supplying personal protective gear for all those in attendance.

He stresses that their efforts as a department are geared towards saving the school academic year especially because matric learners “lost valuable learning and teaching time for the better part of the year. The only solution we have, without compromising their future, is to incubate these learners for a period of three months until they write the exams”.

He, however, doesn’t state when the camps will officially kick off, seeing as the start date was pushed back.

OFM News