Pretoria -
Three teachers at Soshanguve’s Funekile Senior Secondary School have been accused of siphoning off almost R21 000 of money paid for a trip in August, allegedly after doctoring entrance fees at an entertainment venue, along with transport fares, and creating false payments.
Parents at the no-fee school said they had to dig deep to pay the R230 for the trip to Gold Reef City in Joburg.
They felt robbed by the school and the district education office which failed to step in and act despite being presented with evidence of the corruption.
The district had been called in to intervene when the principal defended his staff, saying they would never rob the parents.
Samson Baloyi, chairman of the school governing body’s (SGB) disciplinary committee said: “We gave them invoices obtained from the venue, and a statement of accounts from the teachers, in which there are huge discrepancies in income and expenditure.”
When the parents of the 157 pupils paid, they were told the money was for entrance fees and transport, and asked to give their children extra money for fun rides, activities and refreshments.
The trip went ahead in August, but when invoices were requested, the teachers claimed not to have been given any. Instead they presented a statement dated a month before the trip was taken.
“When the sums did not add up I called the venue and it sent the invoice. Imagine the shock when we compared it against their statement,” Baloyi said.
There were discrepancies in the number of children paid for, and the amounts paid: “In their statement the teachers said they paid R21 500 in entrance fees, while the invoice was for R15 030,” he said.
In a statement, the teachers claim to have paid R20 810 for 167 pupils, R1 040 for educators, R390 for three parents and R260 for two extra people, while Gold Reef City had given free entrance to the educators and had received no payments for the other five.
An SGB investigation found that the parents had paid transport fees of up to R7 000 more than what was paid to the bus company: “They collected R15 700 and paid R8 900 for two buses.”
The teachers also claimed to have paid for the extra “fun activities”, which the children told their parents they had paid for themselves. “So they collected money they claimed was for their entrance when they knew very well how some parents struggle financially,” Baloyi pointed out. “Efforts to call in the principal’s bosses proved futile as the district office failed to respond positively, saying it had spoken to the principal who said he had everything under control.”
SGB chairman Max Rapoo said they had heard the principal had received R2 000 from one of the teachers, who admitted to having participated in the fraud.
“How could they ignore such a big crime?” he asked. The code of conduct should have immediately kicked in and all three (teachers) should have been suspended.
The SGB suspected collusion between the principal and teachers: “Why else would he not follow the law and act quickly?” Rapoo asked.
When the Gauteng provincial Department of Education was approached for comment, it said investigations had been carried out and disciplinary action would be carried out at the beginning of the new year. The money had been paid back to parents, it said, something the SGB yesterday slammed as “lies” and more collusion.
- Pretoria News