Johannesburg - Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has defended her director-general Bobby Soobrayan, who is under investigation for late textbook deliveries in Limpopo.
“The fact he gets investigated doesn't say anything about his integrity. It's a question of timing, whether he was too bureaucratic,” she told 567CapeTalk radio on Friday.
“It's about whether he could have acted much more quicker and that's what the Public Services Commission (PSC) is going to investigate.”
In a previous interview with the radio station, Motshekga apparently praised Soobrayan.
President Jacob Zuma decided at the beginning of October that the PSC should investigate Soobrayan following a report by the presidential task team into late textbook deliveries.
This was to do with, among other things, his alleged indecisiveness after receiving a letter from the textbook publishers in December last year.
In the letter, the publishers reminded him that learner, teacher support materials had not been ordered for the Limpopo education department.
He also apparently failed to provide the necessary support when the Limpopo department of education was placed under national administration.
In the report, the task team recommended that Soobrayan be investigated.
Motshekga gave the assurance that there would not be a repeat of the textbook crisis next year.
Describing Limpopo in 2013, she said: “Right books, right time, right venue.”
On Thursday, she said textbook deliveries to the province would be done before Christmas.
“The final administration of the entire project must be completed by 13 December 2012.”
The National Treasury had committed R380 million for the 2013 procurement and delivery process, with additional funding for stationery packs, she said.
Deliveries to schools had already begun earlier this month, and would be accelerated to the rate of 200 a day. - Sapa