Bhisho’s Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture committee has issued a damning report on the department’s handling of libraries in the province saying that among other things it has neglected its constitutional obligation for rendering library services in the Eastern Cape by “sub-contracting this function to municipalities”.
The report says that most municipalities do not have the capacity to provide library services “nor do they have an interest in rendering the service because it is viewed as being auxiliary to their mandate”.
The committee recommends that:
- Funds should be transferred directly to local authorities and not through district councils that deduct 10 per cent as an administration fee
- Vacant posts in libraries should be budgeted for and filled, and
- More library books should be provided for township libraries
The committee visited libraries across the province in June this year discovering that in many of the facilities staff had been serving in an acting capacity for several years and that insufficient books were provided and little or no provision made for periodicals and other publications.
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