It's as big a scandal, for example, as the voluntary severance packages in schools which stripped education of so many skills and experience at the cost of billions of rands, and the schools system hasn't recovered.

In essence, the education department argues that the quality of the education children receive is irrelevant, as long as someone stands in front of the class.

It's quite some spare part. We're delighted to be able to get this. It has been a small miracle.

If they were unanimous in their rejection we would close the door.

This is obviously a complex problem and we are taking advice from senior legal counsel.

The memorandum sets out all the DA's grievances and proposes a series of action steps which the DA believes the SABC should take -- including broadcasting the DA's manifesto launch live -- if it is serious about providing balanced and fair coverage of this and future elections.