‘Jobs for Cash’: SADTU must account to Parliament

23 May 2016

The DA has today written to the Chairperson of the Basic Education Portfolio Committee, Ms. Nomalungelo Gina, requesting that the SADTU leadership be called to appear before the committee at the first available opportunity.

The ‘Jobs for Cash’ report released on Friday night contains damning findings against SADTU, including:

- Evidence of 38 cases of buying and selling teaching posts involving SADTU members; and

- SADTU’s capture of six out of the nine provincial education departments.

The President of SADTU, Mr Magope Maphila, must account to Parliament for his union’s role in the ‘Jobs for Cash’ bribery and corruption racket. In particular, he must commit to taking action against all SADTU members implicated and put in place measures to prevent the buying and selling of teachers’ posts in the future.

In terms of rule 138(a) of the National Assembly Rules, the Portfolio Committee has the right to “summon any person to appear before it to give evidence on oath or affirmation, or to produce documents”. The Basic Education Portfolio Committee must exercise this right to ensure that justice is done in the SADTU ‘Jobs for Cash’ corruption scandal.

SADTU has consistently claimed that it has not been given a chance to state its case. We therefore expect that Mr Maphila will welcome the opportunity to appear before the Portfolio Committee to do just that.

In addition, I have today written to Minister Angie Motshekga to request an indication of when we can expect the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report to be tabled in Parliament, as she has promised. It is crucial for the Portfolio Committee to discuss and deliberate on the sixteen recommendations contained in the final report, since these could have far-reaching consequences for our education system.

The release of the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report on Friday is the first step in a long journey to hold SADTU accountable. Ultimately, we need to break SADTU’s stranglehold on our schools, particularly those in disadvantaged communities.

Minister Motshekga must be commended for establishing the Task Team and finally releasing the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report in the face of SADTU pressure. She now needs to ensure that action is taken against the individual SADTU members implicated, as well as the SADTU leadership who allowed this corruption to happen under its watch.

Issued by Gavin Davis, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, 23 May 2016