The suspended head of the Eastern Cape department of education, Dr Naledi Mbude, said she views her suspension as part of political rivalry between Premier Oscar Mabuyane and his archrival, public works MEC Babalo Madikizela, and said she’s going to challenge it through the high court.
Mabuyane suspended Mbude on Tuesday, citing the provincial department’s failure to deliver support materials to pupils on time and its failure to spend R205-million of the infrastructure grant, which was returned to the National Treasury at the end of the 20021/22 financial year . The funds have been redirected to KwaZulu-Natal.
Mabuyane also cited problems of payments to education assistants that the province employed from November last year as part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s youth employment initiative.
However, Mbude said she’s been aware for some time that Mabuyane intended to dismiss her for a perceived alignment with Madikizela, and said these perceptions are driven by her decision to channel funds from the infrastructure disaster budget to Madikizela’s public works department.
“We have done so in order to focus on our core function, which is teaching and learning, and because we already have a service level agreement with public works,” she said.
Mbude said she is going to court to get the real reasons behind her suspension because performance, which has been cited, is not something that can lead to one’s suspension and with only eight months on the job, she’s due for an annual assessment between June and July.
She said her department has spent about 97% of its infrastructure allocation despite returning R205-million to the National Treasury.
Mbude said she has been singled out while other heads of departments who underperformed have not been taken to task. Eastern Cape chairperson of the
education portfolio committee Mpumelelo Saziwa said the committee was satisfied with the presentation Mbude had made to the committee before her suspension.
“She submitted written, detailed steps and plans that the department had put together in order to spend the education infrastructure grant funds within the applicable financial year.”
Saziwa said they have been made to understand her suspension was a corrective measure by the executing authority when accounting officers of departments failed to discharge their financial responsibilities as enshrined in the Public Finance Management Act.
DA MPL in the Eastern Cape education portfolio Yusuf Cassim said the suspension of Mbude is suspicious because she was beginning to clean up the rot in the department. Cassim said the DA submitted follow-up questions to the department in relation to revelations made by Mbude, and will pursue the matter through the Public Access to Information Act to bring the truth to light.
When asked about Mbude’s allegations, Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Khuselwa Rantjie, referred Sunday World to the statement by the office of the premier on Wednesday, following her suspension.
An education labour relations expert who spoke to Sunday World on condition of anonymity said the charges against Mbude are vague and give the impression of a fishing expedition.
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