Gauteng Department of Education is failing to safeguard its ICT assets

27 August 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is deeply concerned that the Gauteng Department of Education is failing to safeguard its information and communication technology (ICT) assets such as teachers’ laptops, smartboards and learners’ tablets.

According to the Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi, 49 laptops to the value of R527 000,00 were reported stolen in the past three financial years. 379 smartboards to the value of about R5,5 million were stolen and 8200 tablets to the estimated value of R42, 9 million were reported either stolen or lost in the past three financial years.

This was revealed to me in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

The department only managed to recover 342 smartboards and 200 tablets from those that were reported stolen with the police.

In addition, a total of 170 incidents of theft and vandalism with the estimated damage value of R2 064 000.00 have been reported to the department in the last three financial years with only 113 incidents reported to the police.

There are no clear reasons as to why 57 incidents of theft and vandalism were not reported to the police. We call on MEC Lesufi to institute an investigation into these cases to ascertain why they were not reported.

Despite the fact that some cases of stolen tablets, laptops and smartboards have been reported to the police the department is not aware of any cases that have been finalised in the past three financial years.

This indicates poor school safety strategy. Equally, South African Police Services are failing to prioritize schools as there is no investigation progress report for the cases opened.

It is very worrying that the department continues to lose millions in theft and burglaries while not much is being done to safeguard assets. The department has dismally failed to prevent the incidents of theft and burglaries in our schools.

It is right time to explore other safety measures such as installing CCTV cameras and alarm systems linked to nearby police stations as a way of strengthening security measures. Untrained and unarmed patrollers alone will not be able to safeguard our valuable assets they also need community members to take ownership of the schools.

Issued by Khume Ramulifho, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, 27 August 2019