A deputy principal was fired for stealing milk from her school’s nutrition scheme and feeding it to her puppies, according to the Education Labour Relations Council.
Lettie Ngobeni also allowed other staff at the Hammanskraal school to raid the kitchen, and in total they stole 300 litres of milk, 204 packs of fish, 40kg of rice, 200kg of maize and an unknown quantity of beans.
Ngobeni bribed a witness with 2l of milk to stay quiet, but she was fired anyway, and this week she failed in a claim for unfair dismissal.
Education Labour Relations Council arbitrator Asnath Sedibane said the deputy principal should have known about a rule prohibiting staff from taking National School Nutrition Programme food, and dismissal was an appropriate punishment.
The theft happened during matric exams in October 2019, when Lethamaga Secondary principal Moloa Mputle — now retired — was at the Gauteng education department Tshwane North district office.
Ngobeni and four other staff members shared out the stolen food then attempted to cover their tracks by bribing a neighbour who saw them.
The teacher who managed the Lethamaga nutrition scheme agreed to write a backdated note in the school logbook saying the school management team had agreed excess food could be given to teachers — something forbidden by department policy.
After Ngobeni and two other staff were arrested over the theft, the deputy principal instructed them to deny everything, according to testimony at the arbitration from her accomplices.
Ngobeni denied all the allegations against her, telling the arbitrator the nutrition scheme manager had offered her food that was about to expire, and she had merely asked a general assistant to put some of it in her car.
When she got home she found two packs of milk, a pack of fish, 25kg of maize meal, 10kg of rice and 10kg of beans, she said, adding she “gave the milk to her puppies because it had a smell and two of her children were allergic to dairy products”.
9m: the number of pupils fed daily by the National School Nutrition Programme
1994: the year the programme was launched by former president Nelson Mandela
— IN NUMBERS
The arbitrator said: “She disputed that she had deprived poor pupils of food by giving the milk to her puppies, because she could not give smelly milk to pupils.
“However, she acknowledged that the purpose of the National School Nutrition Programme was to provide nutrition to pupils in poor communities, and pupils at Lethamaga Secondary School were from one of the poorest communities.”
Sedibane said there was clearly a conspiracy of silence after the nutrition programme manager told the principal food had been stolen. “The principal questioned the staff members, and no-one disclosed they had taken some items,” he said.
“Suppose it was normal for food about to expire to be shared by pupils and staff. The individuals who had ... taken the food items would surely have mentioned to the principal that they had taken some items from the old stock.
“Even when the police came to the school after the principal opened a criminal case, none of the staff members volunteered the information.”
When Ngobeni was interrogated at the police station, she still did not say anything about the offer to take food and have it loaded in her car, or about the supposed practice of giving expired food to teachers.
Ngobeni complained she had been fired over the theft while the others involved had only been suspended, but Sedibane said they were her subordinates and could not have taken the food unless she had permitted them to.
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