Report on sale of teaching jobs a flop

23 November 2016 - 09:10 By SIPHE MACANDA
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File photo.
File photo.
Image: Times Media

Fear of retribution has led to people who could testify about the selling of teaching jobs refusing to do so.

An SA Council of Educators report into allegations of corruption in the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, and into the selling of teaching posts, has failed to find anyone guilty of wrongdoing.

The report states this was because of "insufficient evidence" and the unwillingness of people to testify.

"[In some schools] there was evidence that department [of education] officials were involved in this racket but due to fear of being victimised no one was willing to come forward to testify against them," the report said.

Complaints were made involving schools and department of education regional offices in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, North West and Mpumalanga.

DA basic education spokesman Gavin Davis said the report was a "whitewash".

"Despite investigations taking place from 2014, the Council of Educators report - if you can call it that - is a grand total of four pages. The 'methodology' is vague, the specific allegations are not documented and it is not clear on what evidence the 'findings' are based.

"The result is an amateurish whitewash that absolves everybody of wrongdoing, to the advantage of the SA Democratic Teachers' Union," Davis said.

In May Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga released a report into allegations of selling of posts for teachers. The report covered 81 cases, 38 of which provided grounds for reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.

Department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said yesterday: "The status of the matter will be covered [today] in parliament."

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