Gauteng Premier ignored pleas from disadvantaged school to halt its destruction

13 October 2022 

Faced with having parts of their sports grounds destroyed to make way for businesses, the Phoenix High School’s School Governing Body (SGB) has approached AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit for urgent help, because the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has simply ignored their desperate pleas.

Consultations with the SGB have revealed irregularities in the sale of state-owned land and possibly outright corruption. Despite all this evidence presented to the GDE, under the stewardship of its former MEC, Panyaza Lesufi, the school remains in a precarious situation and nothing has been done to investigate potentially serious crimes.

The unit has written to the erstwhile MEC and newly appointed Premier of Gauteng, imploring him to meet with the SGB to halt the destruction of this school.

Phoenix High School is in Vereeniging. The unit has been provided with evidence which shows that the land, including the school and its infrastructure, was sold about a decade ago to the Sedgars group of companies for the meagre sum of R650 000.

Documentation further confirms that after the sale, the GDE entered into a lease agreement with Sedgars, with an initial monthly rental amount of R110 000, which has increased to the current amount of R180 000 per month.

A simple calculation reveals that Sedgars will, at the termination period of January 2026, have earned at least R32 million in rent from the GDE from land that was once owned by the government and sold under seemingly questionable circumstances.

In a letter to Lesufi, head of the unit, Adv. Gerrie Nel, wrote: “It defies belief that the GDE allowed the sale or gift of government land through a possible scam to be transferred to the municipality and later sold to Sedgars. The exposed facts unequivocally raise suspicion that somebody has unduly benefited.”

“We have learned that the landowners have completed all the necessary steps to develop the area into a business area, including the school’s only soccer fields. It has become the rule rather than the exception that the GDE would rather avoid matters than deal with them.

An inference is that either your department views the issues of non-fee schools as less important or is prohibited from dealing with matters involving the Sedgars group of companies,” Nel stated in the letter.

Nel added: “It is disappointing and alarming as it appears the government fails to heed the warning and the findings of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry. One would hope that the government would carefully investigate transactions like the one with Sedgars related to the Phoenix High School.”

This is the same Sedgars whose director, Yusuf Dockrat, allegedly paid hundreds of thousands of rands towards former Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula’s family holiday to Dubai. Sedgars was at the time a listed sporting goods supplier to the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee. AfriForum has filed a criminal complaint of corruption against Mbalula for receiving a financial benefit.

“Unsurprisingly, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has after years failed to decide to prosecute Mbalula or his alleged benefactor, Dockrat, despite there being a recommendation by the Public Protector to do so. The inexplicable delay not only prejudices the investigation but stands in the way of this unit’s decision to privately prosecute,” says the unit’s spokesperson, Barry Bateman.

“This failure by the NPA Act in the Dubai holiday matter and the silence from the GDE surrounding the Phoenix School, suggests that the sheltering from prosecution of politically connected individuals continues. This is something the AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit will not stand for. We demand the GDE immediately attends to the concerns raised by the Phoenix High School’s SGB. The unit further reiterates its call on the NPA to prosecute Mbalula and Dockrat on charges of corruption.”

To date, the GDE has not mustered up the decency of a response to the letter sent on 4 October. All avenues are being explored to ensure accountability for those responsible for this untenable situation that could leave hundreds of underprivileged school children without a place to learn and develop.

Issued by Barry Bateman, Communications Manager: Private Prosecution Unit, AfriForum, 13 October 2022