Johannesburg - The Senoane Secondary School principal who was fired for alleged mismanagement of funds is back at work after being reinstated and given a new post.
This was after he disputed his dismissal and won.
But Lebo Mashuga has been demoted to deputy principal and the Gauteng Education Department is in the process of transferring him to another school.
“The department is still in the process of identifying a school for placement,” departmental spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane said.
She did not say which school Mashuga would be going to, but a source revealed to The Star that it was Freedom Park Secondary School.
In May, The Star reported how the department fired Mashuga after investigations showed his wrongdoing in the handling of the school’s finances.
The school’s financial manager was also fired after being found guilty of the same offence, but she also won her appeal. She was also given her job back and instead slapped with a two-month suspension without pay.
Before firing the financial manager, the department had suspended Mashuga for six months.
Sekhonyane said the reason Mashuga won his appeal was because it was found that he had not personally benefited from mismanaging the funds but that he procured goods for the school without following proper procedures.
She said he had failed to keep adequate financial records, including petty cash.
“He also granted a R20 300 loan to an educator. He was not found guilty of theft … he failed to follow the correct supply chain procedures. He remains guilty, but the sanction was reduced after an appeal,” Sekhonyane said.
With regard to the allegation involving the R1 million, she said the claim against Mashuga couldn’t be substantiated, hence he wasn’t charged for it.
Allegations of financial irregularity have been hanging over Mashuga for years. It’s alleged that he left his previous school, Sibongile Primary – which isn’t far from Senaoane – under a cloud of suspicion. By the time the investigation into financial mismanagement at Sibongile was concluded, he had already taken up his position at Senaoane.
Last year, he 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 after complaints about the fact that he was back that the department withdrew the suspension and allowed him to return to the school.
He was also barred from signing school cheques. However, documents that The Star has seen show that Mashuga continued to have access to the school’s funds and was still signing cheques, despite having been on suspension.
A source who wished to remain anonymous said he was found to have irregularly “spent” about R1m of the school funds meant for the procurement of textbooks.
Other allegations included misuse of funds allocated by the department for the Secondary School Improvement Programme, and that R27 000 collected from Grade 12s in 2013 for their matric farewell function was never used for that purpose.
The Star