DURBAN - The DA wants the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal to be placed under administration following the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) report outlining corruption in the acquisition of personal protective equipment (PPE).
In a statement issued by the party’s education portfolio committee member, Dr Imran Keeka said the recent findings of the SIU probe into Covid-19 expenditure by the department confirmed the DA’s long-held view that the KZN Department of Education is a cauldron of corruption.
Keeka said given the number of education officials implicated in the explosive report, there was only one option left and that was to place the department under provincial administration, adding that corruption crippled the delivery of quality education, making the classroom environment one that destroyed every possibility of creating a capable state.
He said the findings also confirmed that the department is in the midst of a corruption crisis despite MEC Kwazi Mshengu and his former head of department Dr EV Nzama’s attempts to convince education portfolio committee members otherwise.
“The report is also explicit insofar as it confirms that MEC Mshengu did everything in his power to have the SIU findings reviewed. Fortunately, these attempts have been unsuccessful. Trying every trick in the book to cover up corruption is unbecoming of high office. To make matters worse, there was a feckless internal attempt to have matters raised by the DA investigated by an independent company – which, as it turns out, was irregularly awarded a contract with the DoE.The question is: How much worse can things get in KZN’s Education department?” said Keeka.
He added that as it stands, there is no demonstration of leadership by the MEC, leaving the way forward unclear.
Last year Public Protector advocate Busi Mkhwebane found that the purchase of a new car for MEC Mshengu – while the one used by his predecessor had lasted only a year – was unlawful and constituted fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The report recommended disciplinary action against the officials involved but absolved Mshengu of any wrongdoing.
Last week the department was embroiled in another scandal after the SIU found that of 58 companies that were awarded PPE contracts, only six were were awarded contracts procedurally. The report fingered six senior officials, against whom it recommended action be taken. The report also revealed that prices were inflated.
The department’s acting head, Dr Barney Mthembu said it was not true that the department was failing to act against corruption, saying on Monday last week that the department would start acting against officials involved in the unlawful purchasing of the MEC’s car, in line with the public protector’s recommendations.
Mthembu said after the report last year, the department wrote to Treasury asking for guidelines, and it had received them.
Daily News