"Jobs for Cash" Report briefing with Deputy Minister of Education

Meeting report

The Chairperson spoke of the need to finalise the Jobs for Cash saga. She indicated that all teacher unions and not just the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) were implicated in this saga and noted that even school governing bodies and the media were interviewed.

Deputy Minister of Education comments
Deputy Minister Enver Surty apologised for the Minister who was unable to be present. He spoke of how the matter arose with a newspaper report about teacher posts being sold for cash. The Minister took this very seriously and in terms of the integrity of the system, the Minister set up a task team that comprised of forensic experts, Department of Justice (DoJ) officials and higher education institutions. A preliminary report was tabled and further allegations were brought forward. The deadline then needed to be extended to ensure that all parties were interviewed and investigated. Where there was criminal action, there were immediate proceedings without the need to finalise the report or debate the matter. Where disciplinary action needed to be taken, this was undertaken immediately. The Report does reflect on SADTU, but on other unions as well. It talks to the role officials have played in the employment of personnel within the Department and also reflected on the role of school governing bodies.

The Report has a few recommendations that the Department has taken forward and some were initiated before it received them from the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) such as the suggestion that all educators at Post Level One should be appointed by a different mechanism and SGBs should not have a role in these appointments. The DBE held a different view to that, but agrees that with regard to principals, there has to be an element of competency, efficiency, experience and qualifications on the panel. With other staff, SGBs play a very important roles and the DBE did not want to remove that particular responsibility. There were recommendations that required the attention of the DBE with many of them being already addressed in draft legislation that will be tabled early next year; it deals with a range of issues that provincial departments have raised. The legal team that looked at the South African Schools Act (SASA) and the Employment of Educators Act was made up of the Western Cape, Gauteng and two other provinces. This team was mandated by the provinces. Most of the recommendations found in the MTT Report have found expression in the draft legislation.

Director General briefing on Jobs for Sale Report
Mr Hubert Mweli, DBE Director General, noted that it is this Committee that ‘owns’ the Report as it is on provincial issues. He thanked the Committee for its patience in waiting for the finalisation of the report. It has been strengthened since the presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education on 23 November.

The MTT was made up of:
Dr John Volmink: Educationist (MTT chairperson)
Mr Michael Gardiner: Educationist
Mr Siyabonga Msimang: Department Public Service and Administration (DPSA)
Mr Paul Nel: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ)
Ms Amelia Moleta: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ)
Mr Gerhard Scholtz: Deloitte
Advocate Tommy Prins: Deloitte
The DBE provided the secretarial support to the MTT.

Methodology
The methodology was mainly interviews and reviews of some of the Department’s policies. MTT interviewed the following the teacher unions nationally and provincially:
SADTU
National Professional Teacher’s Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA)
Die Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU)
Professional Educators Union (PEU)
National Association Teacher’s Union (NATU)

The South African Council for Educators (SACE) and the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) were also involved in the investigations. DBE considered inputs from and interviewed SGB representatives:
Federation of Association of Governing Bodies (FEDSAS); National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB); and Governing Body Foundation (GBF).

Document analysis and individual and group interviews were the primary methods employed by the Task Team. Relevant policy documents were studied and analysed to identify possible gaps and to determine how the system of appointment of educators can be strengthened. The data collected and collated finds voice in the Report. Transcripts and notes of all interview and consultations were recorded and analysed - see Chapter 4 and Addendum I and II.

In summary, the MTT used media allegations about the buying and selling of posts as a focus for discussions with district managers and teacher unions in each province, asking them for their responses to general and specific instances which the City Press and other sources had provided. Individual allegations were followed up, individuals interviewed, and follow-up meetings were held with informants. Then the forensic members of the Task Team, drawn from Deloitte as well as the Department of Justice, investigated those instances which are contained in this Report. The Task Team conducted an online search to identify media articles related to its mandate. A spreadsheet and list containing a representative selection of media allegations is included in the Addendum.

Background and Context
The MTT submitted its Report to the Minister and it was released on 20 May 2016. Subsequent to the release of the MTT Report, Cabinet was briefed on its; the Portfolio Committee was briefed on the actions to be taken to remedy the challenges emanating from the Report; and presentations were made to both the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) and Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM).

There are 16 recommendations in the final MTT Report containing two types of findings: general and specific. The second phase of the MTT Report contains the forensic part of the report and consists of 39 specific recommendations and findings.

Before the MTT Report was released, consultations took place in April 2016 with the Minister, teachers’ unions and national school governing bodies. Stakeholders had requested that the Minister postpone the release of the Report and grant them opportunity to refine their submissions. The Minister had agreed to this and postponed the release of the Report by 20 days.

Some of the findings of the Report were very general but the last part of the Report dealt with the forensics, which called for a very specific report.

Response of the Sector to Findings and Recommendations of the MTT
• Recommendation 1 and 2: The sector responded that Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) and the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) should deal with the matters urgently, and disciplinary action and criminal charges must be carried out by PEDs and SAPS respectively.
• Recommendation Three: DBE and PEDs have committed to deal with these immediately and decisively and where appropriate, action must be taken.
• Recommendation 4: The sector observed that the roles and responsibilities must be clearly delineated and adhered to by all and where there were compromises, appropriate action must be taken. The Department should regain control of administering the education system in all Provinces so that clear distinctions were established between the roles and functions of the DBE and the concerns of teacher unions.
• Recommendation 5 and 6 (recruitment processes): DBE had started on a process to strengthen the recruitment processes at all levels and components of the sector.
• Recommendation 7 (competency evaluations): The sector response was to support the recommendation of a competency assessment of the candidates and the reformulation of the selection panel to include suitably qualified resource persons. Presently only the Western Cape and Gauteng participated in these assessments as they were not mandatory, however the Department is coming up with a policy that will make competency assessments compulsory across the system.
• Recommendation 8: The sector agreed and minimum requirements for the appointment will be amended.
• Recommendation 9: The sector agrees that policies and regulations must be strictly adhered to, and where there are deviations action must be taken.
• Recommendation 10 and 11: There was a need for amendments to the Labour Relations Act, Employment of Educators Act and to Section 23 of the South African Constitution.
• Recommendation 12 and 13: The sector is of the view that strict adherence to legislation on recruitment must be adhered to and monitoring and enforcement must be strengthened.
• Recommendation 14: The DBE should work with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), SACE, the Education Deans Forum and other stakeholders in the education sector towards the development of a professional standards framework for teachers.
• Recommendation 15; The sector acknowledged the need to strengthen SACE and maintain its independence as well as to enhance the image of the teaching profession.
• Recommendation 16: DBE should engage SACE to get access to any further investigation report as the Department only received a report on one case from SACE.

Consultation with Stakeholders
The MTT was in consultation with nine other stakeholders. It had met with the Cabinet Committee for Social Protection, Community and Human Development, which had recommended that Cabinet note the MTT Report and approve that the Minister of Basic Education provide it with government’s preliminary response in line with constitutional imperatives and relevant legislation during the Cabinet meeting in April 2016. The MTT had met with Cabinet, who had supported the process intended to deal with the findings and recommendations of the MTT Report.

The MTT had met with the CEM, who said an urgent review of appointment procedures and legislative amendments to address the recommendations must take place. It commented that the process to amend the South Africa Schools Act (SASA) provided an opportunity to consider the recommendation related to the powers of the school governing bodies (SGBs) in the appointment of teachers. It said that amendments must be well thought through to ensure that the sections of the education sector which functioned well were not destabilised, that SGBs should not be entirely excluded from the process of appointing principals, that the DBE and provincial education departments (PEDs) had to ensure that the best teachers and principals were appointed to avoid perpetuating the challenges in the system, and that some of the recommendations of the MTT required thorough interrogation.

The MTT had met with HEDCOM, who had commented that further work would be needed to proceed, and that criminal matters should be pursued without waiting for the MTT Report to be concluded.

The MTT met with the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU), who had held that the MTT had failed to sustain an open and enquiring state of mind, that its enquiries had gone beyond the media reports, and that it had made observations outside of its terms of reference.

In a meeting with the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA), the organisation had made reference to recommendations 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 14 and 16, and expressed support for them. It had not, however, supported recommendation 6, which dealt with amending the South African Schools Act (SASA) and the Employment Equity Act (EEA) on the powers of the SGB. Lastly, with regard to recommendation 7, it wanted panels to include educators of suitable rank and experience.

In a meeting with the Suid Afrikaanse Onderwyser Unie (SAOU), the union had expressed support for recommendations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 16. It had also objected to recommendation 6, saying that it believed that SGBs should have the power to make recommendations on the appointment of teachers. Recommendation 7 was also only partially supported as far as the principle that principals must comply with the minimum requirements of suitability, academic acumen, experience and professional competencies. Recommendation 11 was not supported, because SAOU did not support that there was a separate union for office-based educators, as this was in conflict with the constitutional principle of freedom of association. Recommendation 14 was also only partially supported in so far as having a broad underlying philosophy.

In a meeting with the National Teachers’ Union (NATU), the stakeholder mentioned that it believed that the fear of reprisals acted as a deterrent in preventing many potential witnesses from coming forward to testify.

The MTT had met with the Professional Educators’ Union (PEU), which had supported most of the recommendations and especially the call to end cadre deployment.

In a meeting with the National Association of School Governing bodies (NASGB) and the Federation of Governing Bodies for South African Schools (FEDSAS) and others, concern was raised over the recommendation of taking away the powers of the SGBs in the appointment process. They outright objected to that and said the recommendation should be withdrawn.

Progress Report
For recommendation and finding one: DBE has sifted and classified the recommendations and it has written letters to the PEDs of the six provinces implicated in the MTT Report, namely; Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, North West, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal to implement the recommendations of the MTT. Two provinces, Mpumalanga and North West, presented progress reports but have not completed the actions as yet. Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo reports are still outstanding.

Recommendation and finding two: Cases have been referred to PEDs. Mpumalanga has completed its investigation (first phase) and North West has completed only one case. Gauteng, Eastern Cape KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have begun with their processes.

Recommendation and finding three: DBE has referred all cases to the relevant PED for action. PEDs were advised to investigate using the test for corruption as provided for in Section 3 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act and refer criminal cases to SAPS. Appointment procedures contained in collective agreements and the introduction of competency assessment for school principals, are being negotiated in ELRC.

Recommendation and finding four: ELRC is in the process of reviewing and strengthening the appointment procedures contained in collective agreements. The introduction of competency assessment for school principals is being negotiated in the ELRC

Recommendation and finding five; The ELRC is in the process of reviewing and strengthening the appointment procedures contained in Collective Agreements.

Recommendation and finding six: Internal consultation by the Minister on the findings and recommendations as well as consideration of amending the appropriate legislation has taken place through the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill.

Recommendation and finding seven: The Minister has gazetted the Standards for Principals on 18 March 2016, Gazette No. 39827. This will be used to inform competency assessments for school principals.

Recommendation and finding eight, nine and 13: During the oversight visit of the Minister and Director-General, the importance of strict adherence to roles and responsibilities in recruitment procedures and processes, have been emphasised. Recruitment process and procedures are being strengthened through legislation and policy amendments.

Recommendation and finding ten and 11: There was no progress in this regard given the fact the legislation and constitutional amendments have not been effected yet, as National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces have the responsibility to review the Constitution and legislation amendments.

Recommendation and finding 12: All levels of the sector have been reminded to strictly adhere to policies and procedures on recruitment and to ensure that the practice of cadre deployment in DBE offices and schools ceases entirely.

Recommendation and finding 14: DBE worked with DHET, SACE, the Education Deans Forum and other stakeholders in the education sector towards the development of a professional standards framework for teachers. A SACE Advisory Group on professional standards has already been established to start this work.

Recommendation and finding 15 and 16: Discussion and work on strengthening the role of SACE to enhance the image of the profession have started. SACE has submitted only one case to the Department.

Analysis of the Investigated Cases in the First Phase (81 Cases)
Of the 81 cases, the majority have been closed; this means that there was not enough evidence to pursue the matter. Some of the allegations made have substance and others were motivated by personal feelings. Cases one to five, have been closed; six to 13, awaiting reports; case 14 to 19, closed; Cases 20 to 23, awaiting reports; Cases 24 and 25 to 37, investigation was continuing and the Department was awaiting a report; Case 38, closed; Case 39 and 40, closed; Case 41, Matter was investigated and concluded at a dispute resolution meeting and the complainant in the matter was appointed in another post. The PED was advised to further investigate any other implicated officials with a view to ascertain whether there are further charges to be laid.

Case 42, closed; Case 43, the matter was being investigated by SAPS and the Department is awaiting report from SAPS; Cases 45 and 46, closed; Cases 47, Mpumalanga PED has been advised of charges in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act against all implicated individuals; Cases 48 to 50, closed; Cases 51 to 61, awaiting reports; Cases 62 to 67, closed; Cases 68 to 69, awaiting reports; Case 70, closed; Cases 71 to 76, awaiting reports; Case 77, closed; Cases 78 to 81, awaiting reports.

Progress on the Forensic Work of the MTT (39 Cases)
 At the conclusion of the MTT work, a flood of cases were referred to the MTT and a forensic team of investigators was established to investigate the new consignment of cases. The forensic team has investigated 39 cases in the second phase. The MTT met in August to assess the individual investigator reports on the cases investigated after the final report. Due to the number of cases and the availability of witnesses and documents and the location of the complaints, the forensic team could not meet its deadline of 30 August 2016. All the 39 cases have been investigated and finalised in September 2016. The forensic task team held meetings in September to finalise work on Chapter 3 and Addendum V of its report.

Discussion
Mr M Khawula (IFP, KwaZulu Natal) expressed his gratitude to the Minister for having the guts to put together a team to investigate this and secondly, to the team that was set on finding out the truth around jobs for cash. The case of the KZN district manager and two principals were investigated for the death of a person who was gunned down. The Department must still continue with the investigation and not just rely on what the courts have said. He said that the National Assembly Portfolio Committee being seen as first point of importance and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Select Committee as second class is a matter that needs to be rectified. The Department is tasking provinces to conduct investigations even though provinces were of no assistance before the establishment the MTT to steer further investigations and finalising the rest of the cases.

There is a belief that education in KwaZulu Natal has been hijacked by a certain teacher union and if provinces were meant to continue with investigations, this will defeat the purpose. Cadre deployment has been there and is there and the MTT has indicated that this is a fact. The Department cannot just say provinces must do away with cadre deployment. More needs to be done to rectify this.

Ms D Ngwenya (EFF, Gauteng) thanked all present and stated that this is jobs for cash matter is sad as she comes from a family of educators and the profession has been respected by many. Recruitment is a focal point and this is where the best are chosen for the position and role. She asked the Department to offer basic training to SGBs for the selection and recruitment of teachers at local level without being bullied by unions or district managers. The issue of closed cases brings her to believe that thorough investigations have been taken and, if people have been found guilty, the harshest sentences must be passed on them in order to make some form of difference. She asked the Department to not close the process as some people may still come forward with new-found courage. Cadre deployment has killed the profession and has brought forward political play in the profession. Deadlines must be set for provinces to produce progress reports

Ms T Mpambo-Sibhukwana (DA, Western Cape) thanked the Deputy Minister for his presence. She asked how the Department will retrieve taxpayer money from those who have been found to be in contravention of gaining teacher posts legally. Can the Department state how many people have been found guilty in each province and how they will pay back the money? On cadre deployment, there may be people who have wanted to report issues; could there be a 0800 number established for people to report on such issues without fear of being intimidated? She asked how the Department will monitor and evaluate the system and ensure that there is close and intensive consultation with all levels in the system.

Ms P Samka-Mququ (ANC, Eastern Cape) said provincial interference was of great concern and that SGBs need to be strengthened and the separation of roles need to be established so all parties know what responsibility they have. There also needs to be real attention given to the number of people in acting posts and it cannot be allowed that an individual is in an acting position for years on end. Interference in appointments needs to be removed from political parties and be set by the appointment committees in order to remove cadre deployment. There also needs to be a review of how and when things get presented to the NCOP as the Committee is the last point of approval; without its acceptance, nothing gets passed. She asked the DG to clarify what role the District Managers play and do they know their role and responsibilities? What is being done to address the issues of the Eastern Cape?

Mr C Hattingh (DA, North West) said both South Africa and the Department have received unbelievable damage from this report. There is a big expectation that something should occur. Now, based on the recommendations today, it looks like "die berg het 'n muis gebaar" [gone through a lot of effort and not have anything to show for it]. Based on most of the recommendations, it does not look like there were actually substantive or provable offences. Is it not because in the provinces, specifically in the provinces where there are allegations that the department of education has been hijacked and there is no real energy to properly investigate, that this is a continuation of this? The departments have been so hijacked by trade union people, and people that play an important role in trade unions or did so in the past, that we cannot say that this report is what it should be. He has great admiration for the work done by DBE, but is this enough? Is it too little too late? Are we too far off the path? Can we say that this report and the consequences taken to get the evil our of our education system is adequate? The damage done to our system as a consequence of this is very, very great. He does not know if this report is adequate to overcome the damage done to the reputation of the Department.

The Chairperson pointed out that the DBE would have been before the Committee much sooner but the Committee was lacking a secretary and was hindered in its scheduling capability, so the Department could not be blamed for that. Thus the idea that the National Assembly takes first preference is not true.

The Chairperson said that she had no issue with cadre deployment as long as that cadre had experience and was fit for the position. Where it goes wrong is when people are taken with no experience and put in senior roles. You cannot punish cadres as everyone has freedom of association and cadres can hold a position as long as they can prove they are competent.

The Chairperson asked when the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill and other legislative amendments will be finalised so that the education system can be strengthened at school and district levels. She said she was confused by the idea of a dedicated unit looking at ‘jobs for cash’. Is this on a temporary basis? This wording makes it seem that it will continue for a while and not be finalised. We need to deal with the issue and stamp it out. She asked who would make up the task team to follow up on the pending cases as “you cannot be a team player and a referee”.

The SGBs are very important and during provincial oversight visits, they found there were governing bodies that were very capable of functioning properly. However, there are a few critical issues in the training SGBs receive from the Department. There are “levels of operation” and the selection of principals does need people that are skilled in selection and are learned in conducting interviews. We do not want to exclude the parents, we want the parents to be involved but the panel needs strengthening.

Deputy Minister and DBE response
Deputy Minister Surty responded first and said that he would give a general overview and wanted to echo what the Chairperson stated about cadre deployments as staff in the Department come from all teacher unions and from different political parties. The reality is that political deployments do occur, as seen across the globe, with the change in administration in the United States being an example. It is however criminal to have an unqualified person playing the role of an educator and to have people without relevant skills and experience being given positions they are not suited for.

On SGBs and their role in appointments, the legislation stated that SGBs had the final say on appointments. Only seven years ago was this amended to state that SGBs would provide three names and on the basis of competency, equity and representation, the Department makes a selection from those three names.

The BELA Bill states that for certain positions (principals and deputies) there needs to be relevant qualifications, experience and competencies to fill those roles.

Districts still need attention, but work has been done and for the past ten years there have been quarterly meetings with District Managers from across the country. These meetings are attended by the Minister, Deputy Minister, Director General and Deputy Directors General. For these meetings, half the agenda is prepared by the Department and the other half by District Directors.

In the Eastern Cape, there is a process of rationalising the 23 districts to 12. DBE also needs to ensure that the leadership in districts is strengthened as information relevant for DBE to know what is happening at local level, comes from these managers.

Changes need to be made in Human Resources management. For example, in KwaZulu Natal, there was a huge issue with the post provisioning norms. A team was sent from the National Department to assist KZN in removing the surplus and formulating the PPNs. In Eastern Cape, the Department has taken a union to court because of noncompliance with the PPN. There is intervention on the ground and that the Committee is arguing for this, shows the need for more assertion. The difficulty is that more that 90% of the DBE budget is distributed across the nine provinces, with less than 5% staying with the National Department. There are not enough resources to make interventions at that level as no extra funds are given by the Treasury to assist with interventions.

There was a dedicated line in the Department and the Presidency for the public to lay any form of complaint. The response has been over 90% across all the provinces. Where there was fraud and people have misled the State about their qualifications, there is a unit within the DOJ that is entitled to seize the proceeds of any crime and it can even attach one’s pension. There has been a time when in one year the DOJ seized over R3.5 billion as proceeds of crime.

The draft legislation covers a wide range of areas: SGBs, admission, policy, authority and aims to make clear any areas that lacked clarity before. The legislation will be presented for discussion; this will take place after the public has made its comments and all unions and school governing body associations have been consulted. After public comment, it will go to Cabinet for approval to submit to Parliament.

Mr Mweli said that he was extremely elated that the Committee was united behind getting things sorted out as in most instances, party politics play a huge role in the work being discussed and engagements become polarised. For all Senior Management Staff (SMS) in the system, a competency test will be established to ensure the right people are appointed to positions; these will be over and above the interview processes. The dedicated unit is not for long term, but for the finalisation of this current process and to ensure systems are strengthened.

This scandal has damaged the profession and the sector and therefore the recommendations from the MTT will be implemented immediately as the Department has a responsibility to restore the dignity of the teaching profession. With regard to how much money is involved, the figures have not been worked out, but as audits and monitoring continues, these will be made clear and those figures will be provided.

A new Superintendent General has been appointed in KwaZulu Natal, Dr Enoch Nzama, who will be working very closely with the Director General in ensuring cooperation and support. He has shared with him the concerns from the NCOP and their observations from oversight and monitoring. Mr Themba Kojana has been appointed as the Head of Department in the Eastern Cape and starts on 1 December 2016.

The Chairperson said that since not all cases were finalised, there would be further engagement on this matter. She welcomed the appointment of the new Eastern Cape HOD and saw this as a new start for the province and a way of seeing real change there.

The meeting was adjourned.