Education Department warns against misleading statements made by DA on the appointment of Director-General
14 August 2015
The Department of Basic Education has noted the misleading statements made by the Democratic Alliance (DA) regarding the appointment of the Department’s Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced yesterday that Cabinet had approved the appointment of Mr Mweli as Director-General to succeed Mr Bobby Soobrayan. Mr Paddy Padayachee had been acting in the position since early 2014.
The DA’s statement clearly shows that they do not make an effort to acquaint themselves with the facts. Mr Mweli has never served as an administrator in Limpopo. That’s factually incorrect.
The contribution of Mr Mweli as an administrator in the Eastern Cape has been appreciated by School Principals, School Governing Body Members, Teacher Unions and ordinary members of civil society.
Learner performance in the Eastern Cape has been on an upward trend ever since. His contribution in the North West ever since 2005 speaks for itself. North West moved from the lowest performing three provinces in the country to the top three performing provinces in the Grade 12 examination results.
The North West was also the highest improved province in the Grade 6 SACMEQ 3 results of 2007. The IPSOS Markinor Survey conducted in 2007 country wide revealed that North West Province came as the best at 74% in providing for Education needs.
All these and many other facts confirm that Mr Mweli's contribution in the education sector is littered with a myriad of achievements. His contribution in the Basic Education Sector is appreciated in and outside the sector including members of the Portfolio Committee wherein the DA is regularly represented.
In its statement the DA has also made several allegations that have not been tested and therefore are untrue, misleading and mischievous.
The court case the DA refers to has been struck off the roll already on 9 September 2014 (copy of court order attached). It is also factually incorrect that that Mr Mweli paid R500,000.00 bail. Mr Mweli in actual fact paid R250,000.00, all of which has since been returned to him due to the fact that the case has been struck off the roll.
Mr Mweli is a seasoned educationalist who has risen through the ranks of the education sector having started as a teacher at Bophirima High School in 1990. He has been involved in the development of key education policies and has a number of successes under his belt.
The DA’s statement is opportunistic and hypocritical. The person that they today brand as being dubious has been, on several occasions, head-hunted by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to take up the post of Deputy Director-General for Districts in 2013.
It is worth mentioning that DA members of the Portfolio Committee approached Mr Mweli to apply for the post of the DG and even indicated that he would be their preference in filling this post.
Mr Mweli has gone through vetting when he applied for the posts of Director-General of the North West Province and the Department of Basic Education and the outcomes indicate that criminal charges against him do not exist. The North West offered him this position and DBE made him a counter offer to retain his expertise.
It is surprising to observe that Mr Mweli is purported to be a dubious character when appointed by the DBE, but when recruited and used by the WCED as well as the NW there seems to be nothing wrong. This is clearly a case of double standards and confirms the fact that the DA has no integrity and that their accusations are baseless and devoid of any truth. They need to start learning that they need to stick to facts and the truth if they are serious about presenting a credible opposition to the people of South Africa.
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Statement issued by the Department of Basic Education, August 14 2015
