Over 80 GCRA employees pocket salaries to stay at home doing nothing

13 July 2023

Over 80 Gauteng City Region Academy (GCRA) employees have been sitting at home since 2019 while being paid full pay and benefits. These employees include chief directors, directors, and ordinary employees.

The DA has been reliably informed about this by some of the GCRA employees who are receiving salaries for doing nothing. They claim that they only go to work to sign the register.

The DA also met with the leadership of the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW),who confirmed that they have been raising this concern with the department and there has been no action taken to address this issue.

This is a waste of taxpayers money, yet schools across the province have a huge shortage of human resources.

This level of corruption happened under Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi's watch when he was the Gauteng MEC for Education. The same leader claims that he is fighting corruption in the province.

Furthermore, the Auditor General's report for the department's annual financial report for the 2021/22 financial year exposed damning findings against the GCRA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Percy Moleke.

Moleke was implicated in maladministration, tender fraud, corruption, and manipulation of the Supply Chain Management procedures. To date, the department has failed to hold the CEO to account, as she is still heading this entity. The AG also recommended that the department's HOD must open a criminal case against the CEO but nothing has been done.

In addition, the GCRA has failed to pay interns at various TVET colleges their stipends on time while continuing to pay its employees for doing nothing.

The DA demands that the Gauteng MEC for Education, Matome Chiloane, fire Moleke as a matter of urgency and take criminal action against her and the implicated officials.

The DA will also be tabling questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to establish why the GCRA is paying salaries to more than 80 employees who are sitting at home.

We also want to know why the AG's recommendations have not been implemented and what steps the MEC will take to resolve this matter

Issued by Khume Ramulifho, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, 13 July 2023