Durban - Forty-six KwaZulu-Natal Education Department employees, including 16 principals and 12 teachers, have been charged with misconduct for offences – including sexually assaulting pupils, meting out corporal punishment, and fraud – since April.
On the list handed to the provincial legislature’s portfolio committee on education on Friday were clerks in the examinations administration unit who showed up to work drunk, and a security guard charged with illegally connecting electricity.
The department also reported to Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) that its billion-rand feeding scheme continued to be milked by fraudsters, which in certain instances meant that pupils went without.
ANC MPL and chairwoman Linda Hlongwa resolved that the feeding scheme be a standing item on the committee’s agenda, and that the department regularly update it on instances of misconduct.
“Governments stand and fall on perceptions of corruption,” Hlongwa advised.
The department has vehemently denied claims that a post as manager of the Ilembe district could be secured in exchange for R100 000, putting it down to a “bitter” candidate who was unsuccessful following a by-the-book interview and selection process.
ANC MPL Mbali Fraser remarked that the committee should guard against “entertaining rumours”.
Last August, the department pledged to aggressively weed out corruption – a commitment it affirmed at Friday’s meeting.
Of the 46 employees who were to face disciplinary hearings, 10 have already been suspended.
They include three teachers – two at primary schools – accused of sexually harassing, assaulting and abusing pupils.
At one high school, both the acting principal and deputy principal were reported to the department for administering corporal punishment, thereby “endangering the lives” of the pupils concerned.
A further seven principals have misconduct cases pending against them related to fraud and other financial irregularities, and two other cases involve inflating enrolment numbers and pupils’ marks.
According to the list presented to the committee, no new misconduct charges have been brought against department employees for illegally benefiting from the feeding scheme.
However, the department is investigating instances of fraud involving two co-operatives who were awarded contracts as food suppliers.
And, while each supplier is allowed to cater for only 3 000 pupils, the department has discovered that some of them were feeding up to 7 000.
More than 2.2 million pupils depend on the National School Nutrition Programme for one hot meal a day, at R2.26 per primary school child and R3.12 for high school pupils.
The Mercury