D-Day for ‘Jobs for Cash’ Report

29 February 2016

Today is ‘D-day’ for Minister Angie Motshekga to release the much-anticipated ‘Jobs for Cash’ report.

Earlier this month, while speaking at an Education Summit, Minister Motshekga promised to release the report before the end of February.

The Task Team’s report into SADTU-aligned officials selling teaching posts has been a long time coming, and must be released without any further delay.

We know that a key finding of the report is that certain provincial education departments have been captured by the SADTU leadership. And we know that the worst performing provinces in the 2015 matric examinations – KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo – are provinces dominated by SADTU.

The truth is that we cannot fix what is wrong in our school system unless we remove the toxic influence of SADTU. The release of the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report is therefore an important first step towards putting the rights of our children ahead of the interests of union bosses.

Minister Motshekga has had a copy of the draft report since 7 December 2015. It is therefore unclear why there is a delay in releasing it. We certainly hope that her apparent reluctance to release the report has nothing to do with internal ANC politics. 

With President Zuma under severe internal pressure, there is every chance that he and his allies will want to suppress the report in order to protect SADTU – one of the big power-brokers in the tripartite alliance. 

We cannot allow our childrens’ future to be compromised by the machinations within the ANC. The DA calls on Minister Motshekga to put our children first and to release the SADTU ‘Jobs for Cash’ report without delay.

Statement issued by Gavin Davis MP, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, 29 February 2016