Mandela bio among shredded Limpopo books

2012-06-26 10:30

Disused workbooks in Limpopo. (Beeld)

Johannesburg - A biography of former president Nelson Mandela, Shakespeare's Macbeth and Aids education manuals were among the textbooks destroyed by the Limpopo education department, according to a report on Tuesday.

Beeld newspaper journalists visited the disused Mustec teacher's college in Seshego on Monday and found thousands of books stacked in piles outside the premises.

Inside the abandoned building, many of the rooms were knee-deep in books, some of which were still new and in plastic wrappers.

Apart from specific subject books in English, Pedi and Afrikaans for maths, science and economics, there were also new textbooks for Aids education, and piles of poetry books.

Countless books had been shredded or burnt in an open veld outside the Mustec building.

DA Limpopo caucus leader Desiree van der Walt, who collected a number of the books in boxes on Monday morning, said she was shocked to find the Mandela biography.

The education department has promised to deliver textbooks to Limpopo pupils by Wednesday after it was taken to court for failing to have the books ready at the beginning of the school year.

Since then, the DA has issued the media with a picture of textbooks being destroyed in the province.
The education department has said it is investigating how and why the books were dumped.

- SAPA