Durban - KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu has warned the department’s employees that if they “engage in corruption”, they will face consequences.
Mshengu was speaking during a press briefing today to reveal the outcomes of an investigation into a Grade 12 boot camp held in the Harry Gwala district last year.
Complaints had been raised that the matric pupils had been placed in a building that was not fit for human habitation.
During the course of the Grade 12 boot camps last year, in preparation for Grade 12 NSC exams, disturbing photos of pupils cramped in a tent with no masks and toilets that were overflowing with human waste emerged from one of the camps, the Boniwe Rehabilitation Centre, in the Harry Gwala District.
Mshengu said the officials would face a disciplinary action for placing the pupils in unsuitable accommodation.
He said the placing of some of the children in the camp was a deliberate act of wrongdoing and even corruption by the department.
Mshengu said even the process to place the children at that camp, had undermined all department and legal processes, deliberately so.
“What is more concerning is that there was a more suitable building, the Ixopo High School, that these officials could have used, and the department would not have paid for its use, but these officials ignored it in favour of that building,” he said.
He said they would be engaging with law enforcement agencies with the view to recover the money and of opening criminal charges.
The MEC urged department officials to refrain from corrupt acts. “If you do your jobs properly, I will defend you to the end, but if you engage in corruption, you will face consequences.”
The Mercury