Motshekga established a task team last year to establish the authenticity of the allegations and South African Teachers Union members are alleged to have been behind the damning allegations.
The task task team is lead by John Volmink and a forensic team from a private sector company.
The investigating team visited all provinces and interviewed Education Department officials, national and provincial leaders of teacher unions, individuals and School Governing Body (SGB) organisations.
It submitted a preliminary report after probing 75 cases, of which 30 provided grounds for reasonable suspicion or wrongdoing.
“The task team worked through many cases and in the process found that there is evidence of wrongdoing. This situation cannot be allowed to persist and I must say that there will be consequences.
The police will be contacted and arrests could follow,” says Motshekga.
She said the preliminary report had confirmed corruption in the appointment of teachers and school principals, and that the authority of the state and powers of certain stakeholders in the appointment process would need to be reviewed.
“The report indicated that in the majority of provinces some unions run, and to an extent appear to control, government,” Motshekga said. “This practice cannot be allowed to continue.
Merit must be the only determining factor when it comes to appointments, particularly in our schools.”
She said a “new regime” would be introduced so that only qualified and competent appointments were made.
“This blatant exploitation and corruption will not be tolerated,” she said.
At a school in KZN a vacant principal post was sold for R30 000, according to the preliminary investigation.
Four provinces have been fingered in the report, whereas others are under the spotlight.
The full report will be released in February next year, and handed to the Cabinet and Parliament.
City Press broke the story this year and attempts were made to gag it.
Two basic concerns : will our kids believe in our education system and trust their teachers to deliver on their mandates?
Despite all the negativity we hope and trust all the learning materials will be ready in time when schools resume next year, asseblief…
