Johannesburg - The head of the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) is fuming over allegations that the Department of Education’s director-general has been at work.
This is despite his taking special leave to prepare for an internal hearing against him.
Sadtu has repeatedly called for Bobby Soobrayan’s head this year, claiming the Department of Basic Education (DBE) had suffered financial mismanagement under his leadership.
Sadtu turned to the Public Service Commission last month to investigate why Soobrayan had signed off on an agreement in 2011 to grant matric markers a 100 percent increase in pay, or an extra R750 million in total, allegedly without authorisation to do so.
The PSC’s recommendation was that Soobrayan face an internal disciplinary hearing.
In a statement on July 23, DBE spokesman Panyaza Lesufi publicly announced that Soobrayan would be allowed to go on leave in the build-up to the hearing, which was supposed to start within 10 days of the statement’s release.
“The minister (of the DBE, Angie Motshekga) will allow the director-general to take special leave to afford him the space to adequately prepare his defence once the disciplinary process commences within a period of 10 days as stipulated in the relevant prescripts,” the statement said.
However, there is still no date set for the hearing, and it appears as though Soobrayan has still been at work, as internal memos The Star has seen list him as the chair of at least two senior management meetings, on July 26 and August 8.
In the same announcement on July 23, Lesufi said Motshekga had allowed Soobrayan to take special leave and asked retired high court Judge Willem van der Merwe to preside over the hearing.
In a written response to when the hearing would begin, Lesufi said: “The retired judge will advice (sic) soon.”
But a DBE insider said Soobrayan has been at work and has chaired meetings despite an acting D-G, Paddy Padayachee, being appointed to take over in the interim. “Stuff has been piling up for signature,” the source told The Star.
“The acting D-G (Padayachee) said: ‘Why should I sign this if the D-G is still around?’” the source said. But Lesufi claimed that Soobrayan needed to be at work.
“The department was in the middle of an audit by the Auditor-General and he was assisting on matters raised by the audit,” he stated.
Mugwena Maluleke, the general secretary of Sadtu, said: “It’s unacceptable, totally unacceptable.
“That person (Soobrayan) must not be in the department at all. If you’re on special leave, it means you must not be there,” he said.
Maluleke said his union was going to meet at the end of the month to talk about its dissatisfaction with issues in the DBE, including Soobrayan’s leadership, and that this might result in strike action.
Meanwhile, Judge Garth Hulley will mull over Sadtu’s application to the Johannesburg Labour Court to compel the DBE to pay the matric markers the 100 percent increase that Soobrayan signed off on.