Here’s a snapshot of some of the schools incidents* we’ve received from the public recently, so you can get a feel for the kind of trends we’re picking up: a service provider bribing principals to secure their business, a governing body flouting the law and booting cleaning staff off school property to house teachers.
Service provider keeping principals in his favour
“XXX from XXX company based in Durban does a lot of business with schools in the Eastern Cape, Transkei/Umtata area and is known to pay bribes to the principals or other officials to secure work from these schools. Throughout the year he spends months there travelling with his team. At this stage not sure which schools as I no longer work there and don’t have access to that kind of info.”
Experienced something similar? Report it to Corruption Watch here.
School governing body above the law
“There is a school in XXX. There is no transparency in the running of the school and some of the SGB (school governing body) members were in the SGB for a period of 10 years which is not allowed in all schools. SGB members are appointed by the principal and he (principal) is the signatory at the bank which is against PFMA (Public Finance Management Act). Their school is always broke according to him but cheques are not crossed and are signed every day, and educators are intimidated and are told that they will lose their jobs. Please can you watch this school as members of the SGB bought cars using the state’s money.”
Experienced something similar? Report it to Corruption Watch here.
Cleaning staff booted out to house teachers
“I have a friend who has taught at XXX school for about three years and who has been teaching for 25 years. When he joined the school he like many other teachers was given a top-up of his education department salary of R3000. At the beginning of the year this was taken away from him, making him the last of the non-white teachers to stop receiving his top-up. The other four teachers had had their top ups removed previously. It seems that all the white teachers earn top ups some as high as R18 000. Many teachers at the school are not qualified teachers but yet they are receiving the same salaries as my friend. In addition, it has been alleged that the chair of the school governing body together with his wife had a holiday paid for them out of school fees. Numerous other actions have occurred such as employment of family members in the school office and the removal of on-site cleaning staff from their accommodation so that apartments for certain teachers could be created.”
Experienced something similar? Report it to Corruption Watch here.
Principal gets jobs for pals
“The principal of XXX primary school is running the school alone, e.g. he looks for quotations for everything and the school has to purchase it. He always buys services from his friends and relatives at inflated prices.”
Experienced something similar? Report it to Corruption Watch here.
