Johannesburg - The Gauteng Department of Education has fired the Senaoane Secondary School principal for mismanagement of the school’s funds.
Lebo Mashuga has been under a cloud of suspicion over funds for a few years and was suspended for six months last year.
On Friday, the Education Department served him with a letter of dismissal after he was found guilty of mismanaging funds. The school’s financial manager was also found guilty of the same offence and fired.
But Mashuga is still at the school, because he has appealed against the department’s decision to fire him.
Education Department spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane explained: “In terms of the labour law, if he is given a letter of dismissal, he is also given the right to appeal within five days, which he has done.”
Mashuga will remain at the school until his appeal has been finalised. He will also draw a salary pending the outcome.
Mashuga was among staff members accused of wrongdoing after a forensic audit was conducted at the school in 2013.
This was after allegations of mismanagement were levelled against the school’s management, including some school governing body members. The other teachers were cleared.
Last year, Mashuga was suspended and ordered to report to the district office. Sources said the suspension was lifted and Mashuga returned to work a week later, without attending a hearing.
It was only when people complained about the fact that he was back that the department withdrew the decision to let him return to the school.
He was also barred from signing school cheques. However, documents that The Star has seen appear to show that Mashuga continued to have access to the school’s funds and was still signing cheques. One of the cheques he signed was to the region of R300 000.
A source who wished to remain anonymous said Mashuga was found to have “spent” about R1 million of the school funds’ books that never materialised. “The children only got the books in August last year, and that is why the matric results were not that great,” the source said.
Other allegations of financial mismanagement included the misuse of funds allocated to the school by the department as part of the Secondary School Improvement Programme, and a R23 000 loan to a teacher.
A sum of R27 000 collected from Grade 12s in 2013 for their matric farewell function was never used for its intended purpose, it is alleged.
The Star