A screenshot from the Joint Meeting: PC on Basic Education and SE on Education & Sports, Arts & Culture 29 April 2020 | Image: YouTube
Comments relating to the joint meeting between the portfolio committee on basic education and select committee on education and technology, sports, arts and culture devolved into chaos on Wednesday morning as the country watched live visuals of the committee members struggling to navigate the technology they were using to conduct their virtual meeting.
Lead by basic education director-general Hubert Mweli, the initial focus of the meeting was to brief committee members of the conditions under which schools are expected to re-open in the new calendar month.
However, the meeting was plagued by issues with the sound, intermittent connectivity and the general technological ineptitude of some committee members.
At some point, the meeting was briefly interrupted the constant repetition of an automated call-waiting message emanating from the phone of an unidentified committee member.
South Africans who tuned in to the stream were not impressed and they wasted no time in making their feelings known on social media.
They also questioned the department’s decision to re-open schools when current conditions made social distancing near-impossible – a question that some committee members also had for the department during the Q&A portion of the meeting.
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