The KwaZulu-Natal Education Department has suspended two high-ranking officials suspected of corruption related to its R1.1-billion feeding scheme.
The Mercury has been reliably informed that one of the pair alleged to have colluded to inflate suppliers’ prices is a director.
The other official is said to be from the uThukela district (Ladysmith), who would have recommended certain suppliers to the director in exchange for kickbacks.
The two suspended officials are part of a “prevalent” tendency of using the poverty alleviation initiative – which feeds over two million pupils in KZN – as a cash cow.
Department officials and teaching staff are doubling as suppliers, contracts to supply food are being awarded through the flouting of supply-chain management rules, and suppliers create monopolies by bribing schools to win tenders, according to a department report. The report asserted that the corruption was prevalent.
MEC Senzo Mchunu last month disclosed that a principal had been caught on the way home with a “large portion” of uncooked food.
“He said he’s short of groceries at home. He won’t have been the only (principal to do so),” Mchunu then said.
Perpetrators
Yesterday, Mchunu said that the net was closing on perpetrators.
“The National School Nutrition Programme is a very important programme that is aimed at alleviating the plight of the poor, especially children who come from indigent communities. We therefore cannot allow it to become a cash cow for the few at the expense of many of our people who are in dire need of such a service from our government. This large amount of taxpayers’ money should be put to good use and, as a department, we will guard it vigilantly and jealously against those who intend to abuse it,” he said.
In KZN, the feeding scheme provides for one hot meal a day, usually a protein such as sugar bean curry, pilchard stew or soya mince; a starch such as pap or rice; and a vegetable – except on Mondays, when fruit replaces the vegetable.
Department spokesman Muzi Mahlambi yesterday declined to confirm the names of the two suspended individuals “at this stage”.
The director did not respond to phone calls or SMSes, and her phone was later switched off.
Mahlambi said the evidence against them was “damning”, and that Mchunu was left with no option but to take action.
He said that once the investigation team had concluded its work, it would submit its findings, and head of department Nkosinathi Sishi would then decide whether or not to pursue criminal charges.
