Jobs for Cash: “Mid-March” has come and gone, but no sign of Task Team Report

23 March 2016

On 1 March 2016, Minister Motshekga announced that the report on the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) ‘Jobs for Cash’ scandal would be finalised by “mid-March”.

“Mid-March” has come and gone, and there is no sign of the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report. 

The DA calls on Minister Motshekga to explain the latest delay in releasing the report, and when she expects to have the report ready for public release.

Delays and goalpost shifting have plagued the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report from the outset:

- On 6 May 2015, a year after announcing the investigation, Minister Motshekga said: “We expect the final forensic report and recommendations very soon.”

- Six months later, in a letter dated 2 December 2015, Minster Motshekga wrote: “The Task Team will be ready to hand its report to me by no later than 7 December 2015.”

- On 17 December 2015, Minister Motshekga announced in a press statement that she had just received the preliminary report.

- In a reply to a parliamentary question on 11 February 2016, Minister Motshekga said that the final report will be “made available” at the end of February 2016.

- On the 1 March 2016, Minister Motshekga released a statement announcing that the report was not ready for release. She set out various processes that need to take place, and committed to finalising these by “mid-March.” 

The ‘Jobs for Cash’ report promises to expose the core problem at the heart of our education system: the capture of provincial education departments by SADTU. This has enabled SADTU to operate with impunity in those provinces, at a huge cost to the education of disadvantaged learners.

Minister Motshekga needs to assure the public that she is doing everything in her power to release the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report, and that ANC internal politics are not a factor in the delay. The only way for Minister Motshekga to do this is to announce clear time frames for the release of the report and to stick to them.

We urgently need to break SADTU’s stranglehold on our education system, for the sake of all our children. The DA re-iterates its call for Minister Motshekga to make the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report public without any further delays.

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