R3m funds scandal at Mandela school

German electronics giant Siemens, the main donor to the Nelson Mandela School of Science and Technology in Mvezo, is to investigate more than R3-million missing from the school.

The company’s Johannesburg-based office has requested a copy of a forensic audit report conducted by the Eastern Cape education department, which alleges financial misconduct by suspended principal Pat Toni.

The school, Siemens’ “biggest ever social investment”, officially opened in January 2014 in fulfilment of Nelson Mandela’s dream of a high school in the village of his birth.

Toni rejects claims in the audit report that he benefited from funds in the school’s bank account.

But according to a submission by the department of education before the Bhisho provincial legislature’s public participation petition and public education portfolio committee last week, more than more R650000 cannot be accounted for in the 2016 financial and academic year.

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