Question NW866 to the Minister of Basic Education to ask the Minister of Basic Education
24 March 2021 - NW866
Van Der Walt, Ms D to ask the Minister of Basic Education to ask the Minister of Basic Education
(1) With regard to the Volmink Report on the selling of posts, on what date was the investigation (a) commissioned, (b) finalised and (c) submitted to her; (2) whether the report will be (a) tabled to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and (b) made public; if not, in each case, why not; if so, in each case, on what date; (3) whether the illegal activity identified in the report has been stopped; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. With regard to the Volmink Report on the selling of posts, on what date was the investigation (a) commissioned, (b) finalised and (c) submitted to her;
ANSWER
a) The Ministerial Task Team (MTT) on the Selling of posts was commissioned in September 2014.
b) The MTT Report was finalised in April 2016 and
c) The report was handed over to the Minister on 20 May 2016. However, at the time of the handing over of this report, there were still some forensic investigations that were pending. They were later subjected to a second phase investigation of the MTT in order to complete the remaining Chapter 3 and Addendum V of the report. Chapter 3 and Addendum V of the report was finalised in June 2018.
2. Whether the report will be (a) tabled to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and (b) made public; if not, in each case, why not; if so, in each case, on what date;
ANSWER:
a) Subsequent to the release of the MTT Report on 20 May 2016, the Report was tabled at the Cabinet meeting to brief them on the report and its findings; the Portfolio Committee was also briefed on May 2016 and June 2017 about the findings and the actions to be taken by the Department to remedy the challenges emanating from the report. Lastly, presentations were made to both the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) and Heads of Education Committee (HEDCOM).
b) Yes, the MTT Report was gazetted and also made public on the Department of Basic Education’s website for easy access.
3. Whether the illegal activity identified in the report has been stopped; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
ANSWER:
The identified cases of the alleged illegal activities were sent to the affected Provincial Departments of Education (PEDs). Due to the fact that the PEDs are the Employers of educators in the respective provinces, they were requested to conduct investigations or follow-up investigations into these cases and provide reports on each of the cases to the DBE.
Since the provincial investigations were commissioned, the number of allegations subsequently dropped. Currently, the DBE has not received any further complaints of such illegal activities or allegations of individuals who participated in one or other form of corruption or selling of posts.