Call to shut down education

The collapse in the Eastern Cape education department is so extreme that some senior officials want to close it down and have it reconstituted.

Officials at the office of premier Phumulo Masualle (OTP) sounded the alarm bells in the Bhisho legislature, urging that the department be “started afresh”.

The department has been without a permanent head for more than a year as its superintendent-general Mthunywa Ngonzo takes his suspension over a R46-million school furniture tender to court. He still receives his R1.6-million salary though. Ray Tywakadi is acting SG. Provincial director-general (DG) Marion Mbina-Mthembu and deputy DG Litha Geza, last week told the legislature that operations at the education department were “unhealthy and chaotic” – and that the chaos was deliberate. The OTP team said efforts to support the department over years were yielding no fruit, and admitted to shocked committee members that they had lost hope of ever seeing it improve.

The department, which accounts for the lion’s share of the provincial budget, has been awarded qualified audit opinions for past three financial years.

Committee chair Sicelo Gqobana had earlier voiced displeasure about the absence of a permanent administration head, saying it “compromised stability”.

During the meeting, Mbina-Mthembu fired the first salvo, telling members the department was an “unsafe environment”.

“When you engage people there, they say I must do as little as possible before I get out of here. They say I must not be heard, I must not be seen, but I must just be around.

“It’s a very unsafe environment to work in. The culture is unhealthy. Even those who want to work, it’s difficult. The environment does not allow them to flourish.”

Gqobana interrupted to ask if it had anything to do with the absence of a permanent accounting officer.

Mbina-Mthembu replied: “When I arrived in 2011, education had a permanent admin head. They have since had a couple of permanent heads, but nothing has changed.