Dozens of school principals and teachers in the Eastern Cape who may have paid for their positions could be in hot water.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said Thursday that an interim report by a special Task Team had found evidence of corruption in some teaching appointments across the country.
She appointed the Ministerial Task Team after having received numerous reports that certain posts for teachers and principals had been given to individuals who had paid cash to secure the jobs.
Department spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga, said Task Team reviewed 70 cases and found strong evidence of corruption and irregularities in 30 cases which have been reported to the police.
"The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces that was affected the most, because the Task Team spent a lot of time there conducting the investigation. They feel that there is a need for the Eastern Cape to pay particular practise which has seen certain people being appointed to certain positions irregularly or after having paid those are in charge of the process to secure the jobs," Mhlanga said.
"All provinces were investigated but there are certain patterns that we are picking up that emerged from certain provinces and the Eastern Cape is one such province with the highest number of incidents of impropriety, particularly focussing on those cases that the Task Team has worked on because remember the Task Team was coming from individuals that were affected."
Mhlanga said that the report also does indicate that there are weaknesses in the appointment system and process which allows people to abuse the system."
"It also shows that as a Department we need to review the role played by certain stakeholders in the appointment process because clearly there are problems involving unions as well as our own officials in the Department. We feel that we need to do something to deal with the because there are cases where the task team found strong evidence implicating people, indicating that people did exchange cash for positions," he said,
"Those cases will be referred to the police. In fact the Minister did say that she is going to speak to the National Prosecuting Authority as well as SAPS to ensure that cases are brought before the courts as quickly as possible. After investigating 75 cases, 30 of them which the task team dealt with, it was found that there was undue influence and in certain cases there was evidence of illegal activities and as a result the Minister has asked the Task Team to continue with the forensic aspect of the investigation in order to ensure that there is good evidence that should be presented in court for us to be able to convict people."
"Thirty cases provided strong evidence that there was wrong-doing and that there is a need for further investigations to be conducted. But the other cases it doesn't mean that there was no evidence, it means that people were no longer to become witnesses due to fear. That's why we are emphasising the need to protect whistle-blowers and indemnify certain people because corruption cannot be committed by one person, it involves several people and some of those individuals who have come forward would have had to self-incriminate and in the process of doing that you need to be protected. So, we are focussing on that, that's why we are working hard to ensure all relevant stakeholders are part of the process."
"That's why the Department of Justice was involved in this process so that they can monitor and advise us on steps to take to ensure that those that are guilty are dealth with and those that need protection are protected but also as a Department there is a need for us to strengthen the system. Some of the recommendations that that Task Team had made to us they need do need immediate implementation while others need to be taken through the normal policy development process where would have to open for public participation for people to make their input for us to strengthen the system because clearly there are weaknesses which have led to certain unions taking advantage of."
