Question NW838 to the Minister of Basic Education

Reply:

(1) With reference to the 2015 Corruption Watch Annual Report, which found that the education sector was the most corrupt sector in South Africa and that, specifically, principals were the culprits in the majority of corruption cases, (a) how many principals have been investigated for corruption (i) in the (aa) 2011, (bb) 2012, (cc) 2013, (dd) 2014 and (ee) 2015 academic years and (ii) since 1 January 2016 and (b) what are the names of the schools at which principals are currently being investigated for corruption, in each case specifying (i) the date from which the specified principal has been under investigation, (ii) whether or not the specified principal has been suspended on full pay, (iii) the monthly salary of each principal suspended on full pay and (iv) whether a temporary replacement is currently carrying out the duties of the specified principals at each school;

Since the employer of educators is the Heads of the Provincial Education Departments, in terms of the Employment of Educators Act, 76 of 1998, the Question was forwarded to the relevant officials in all the Provincial Education Departments with a request that they provide the DBE with response and to date, no response have been received, except from the Western Cape, Limpopo and Free State Education Departments.

(1)(a)(i)

PROVINCE	No. OF PRINCIPALS SUSPENDED
	(aa) 2011	(bb) 2012	(cc) 2013	(dd) 2014	(ee) 2015	TOTAL
Western Cape	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gauteng	38	72	71	41	114	336
Limpopo	1	0	1	0	0	2
Northern Cape
Mpumalanga
KwaZulu-Natal
North West
Free State	0	0	0	0	0	0
Eastern Cape
TOTAL	39	72	72	41	114	338

PROVINCE	(b) Schools that are currently under investigation since 1 Jan 2016	(i)	(ii) Suspended on full pay or Not	(iii)	(vi) Temporary Replacement
	Names of Schools	The Date from which the Principal has been under investigation	On Full Pay	Not on Full Pay	Monthly Salary	Yes	No
Western Cape	None	None	None	None	None	None	None
Gauteng	none	none	none	none	none	none	none
Limpopo	Shingwedzi Secondary School	Not indicated	yes		Not indicated
Northern Cape
Mpumalanga
KwaZulu-Natal
North West
Free State	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Eastern Cape
TOTAL	1	0	0	0	0	0	0

(2) How many of the specified principals have been (a) criminally charged on corruption related activities, (b) criminally convicted for corruption related activities and (c) dismissed from their posts as a result of corruption related activities during the specified financial years and period;

(2) Number of principals who the following actions have been taken against them as a result of corruption activities:

PROVINCE	(a) Criminally Charged	(b) Criminally convicted	(c) Dismissed
Western Cape	0	0	0
Gauteng	0	0
Limpopo	0	0	0
Northern Cape
Mpumalanga
KwaZulu-Natal
North West
Free State	0	0	0
Eastern Cape
TOTAL	0	0	0

(3) What steps is her department taking to root out corruption in the education sector?

The recently released report about the selling of post has provided the Department with recommendations on how to strengthen our selection processes. The Department will soon begin to revise policies on the selection processes.