There is trouble coming when the government decides what to do with the recommendations of a team investigating the alleged sale of teaching and principals' posts by our largest teachers' union. The problem is complex: Can school governing bodies be trusted with the appointment of educators?Now, before you do a rush defence citing the legislation governing schools, consider the following two problems.In some provinces there appears to be evidence of a deeply entrenched practice of selling vacant posts to favoured persons - at a price, of course. There are ample media stories of incumbents being slain to open up a position, and of suicide when someone on the take could not deliver the promised posts. In general, if you pay you get the job even though there is a formal process of appointment, with competing candidates hoping that experience and competence actually count in the decision of the governing body. We will soon know the extent of the problem - not whether it actually exists - when the findings of the team led by Professor John Volmink are finally made public.But there is another problem, and it is the fact that in the formerly white schools teacher and principal appointments largely retain the racial character of the school by the appointment of white educators over and over again. This applies equally to the formerly white Afrikaans schools and the formerly white English schools. It is as if the word "transformation" does not apply to these schools.For two decades of our democracy the government has simply stood by as these schools entrench racial privilege and hierarchy through teacher and principal appointments."We can't find black talent", apart from sounding wrong, has become far too convenient an excuse for doing little to nothing. After all, you are not searching for a professor in astrophysics or nuclear medicine, but a competent teacher in a school subject.If the school governing bodies cannot be trusted to make fair appointments because of corruption in black schools or racial exclusion in white schools, then who should do the job of selecting competent, committed and caring teachers? I know who should NOT be involved - and that is the government. The track record of the government in making competent appointments is abysmal, as anyone watc hing the never-ending saga of leadership and financial crises, costing billions, in the parastatals such as SA Airways would attest.But even routine appointments of government officials in the provinces are mostly given to ruling party deployees instead of competent bureaucrats - which is one reason for schools being so poorly supervised and educators so weakly supported. The government cannot be trusted to do a better job than allegedly corrupt union activists or racially biased governing bodies.One proposal has been to do teacher and principal selection through independent panels of professional people. This will be difficult given that there are 25000 schools, at least. And who exactly are these "independent" people? They are the same people from the same country that make up governing bodies or populate government posts. They, sadly, are us.Then there is this little problem of democracy. We should not break down the very structures designed to ensure community participation in school matters because some abuse the rights granted them. The long-term costs of demolishing the authority of governing bodies, and thereby broad parent and teacher participation in appointments, would be too high.A better proposal, in my view, is to place an incorruptible, professional person from outside the community on every governing body when it comes to appointments. That person must be deeply committed to fairness, and ruthless when it comes to stamping out corruption. We can find a special name or title for such people but their role is to ensure that the governing body promotes transformation and competence at the same time.S/he should not be a political party hack or enmeshed within the sectoral interests of the surrounding community. In other words, we should be looking for a thorough professional who strengthens rather than reduces the authority of school governing bodies.This whole saga offers a warning to governing bodies about the future. Do not neglect your duty to be fair and equitable in appointments, for then you force the government to interfere in the business of managing schools.Worse, the minority of schools that deliver on their mandates are then subjected to the same constricting rules of governance because others did not do their job...