Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has suspended the head of education department, Dr Naledi Mbude, due to poor performance of the provincial department.
Spokesperson for the office of the premier Khusela Rantjie said Mbude has been placed on precautionary suspension pending an investigation into the department’s delays to deliver the stationery on time.
The department was issued with a court order to deliver outstanding learning material to over 3 000 schools in the province following a court application by a group of concerned parents and activists that is represented by the Legal Resource Centre (LRC).
The department has also come under heavy criticism after losing a R205-million infrastructure grant back to the National Treasury which was then allocated to KwaZulu-Natal.
The department has since blamed its failure spend the funds on corruption by implementing agencies. Rantjie said the department has also failed to give satisfactory explanations for its consistent delays in processing payments for educator assistants.
“The precautionary suspension of the HOD [head of department] creates space for the government to investigate these matters,” said Rantjie.
“Premier Mabuyane has set up a team led by a deputy director-general at provincial treasury and comprising senior officials from the office of the premier and treasury to conduct a further inquiry into these issues and submit a report to him within a period of a month.”
In the meantime, Mabuyane has appointed the deputy director-general in the office of the premier, Mahlubandile Qwase, as the acting head of education pending the outcome of the investigation.
Yusuf Cassim, DA’s MPL responsible for the education portfolio, said Mabuyane’s decision to suspend Mbude raises serious questions.
Cassim said the opposition party is satisfied with the explanation given by Mbude in the education portfolio committee with regards to the delay in delivering workbooks and the infrastructure funding the Eastern Cape has forfeited.
He said Mbude’s responses to DA questions in the committee gave a glimpse into the extent of the rot in the provincial education department.
“Dr Mbude also informed the committee that the reason the infrastructure budget was underspent was due to significant irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure that she had discovered in the infrastructure programme, and that the department was currently conducting a full audit of infrastructure projects,” said Cassim.
“In her response, she revealed that audits for two districts had been completed. These had already uncovered several cases where there were huge discrepancies between what was paid for and what was actually delivered.”
Cassim added that the DA has submitted follow-up questions to the national Department of Basic Department in relation to revelations by Mbude and will pursue the matter through Public Access to Information Act applications to bring the truth to light.
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