‘Jobs for Cash’: SADTU must still account to Parliament

29 August 2016

The DA has today written to the Chairperson of the Basic Education Portfolio Committee, Ms. Nomalungelo Gina, requesting that the SADTU leadership be called to appear before the committee to account for its role in the ‘Jobs for Cash’ scandal.

In a letter received from Ms. Gina on 23 May, she agreed that it was necessary for SADTU to appear before for the Portfolio Committee. She wrote:

“…I am in agreement with you in ensuring that all relevant role-players (including Organised Labour) are afforded an opportunity to appear before the Committee soonest.”

The ‘Jobs for Cash’ report released in May contains damning findings against SADTU, including:

- Evidence of 38 cases of buying and selling teaching posts involving SADTU members;

- The deployment of SADTU cadres into powerful administrative positions, despite not having the requisite skills; and

- SADTU’s capture of six out of the nine provincial education departments.

The bribery and corruption in the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report cannot be put down to a few isolated incidents. As the report shows, it is the logical consequence of a dominant union that abuses its dominance to advance itself at the expense of our children. 

As such, the President of SADTU, Mr Magope Maphila, must account to Parliament for his union’s role in the ‘Jobs for Cash’ bribery and corruption racket. In particular, he must commit to taking action against all SADTU members implicated and put in place measures to prevent the buying and selling of teachers’ posts in the future.

In terms of rule 138(a) of the National Assembly Rules, the Portfolio Committee has the right to “summon any person to appear before it to give evidence on oath or affirmation, or to produce documents”. The Basic Education Portfolio Committee must exercise this right to ensure that justice is done in the SADTU ‘Jobs for Cash’ corruption scandal.

Since the release of the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report, Minister Motshekga has been rather muted. On 27 May, she failed to appear before the Portfolio Committee to discuss the report’s findings. Furthermore, she is yet to set out her position on the recommendations contained in the report despite being given the opportunity to do so in Parliament last week.

We hope this is not a signal that Minister Motshekga has gone soft on SADTU. It would be deeply unfortunate for the Minister to prioritise her party’s historical ties with SADTU over the future of South Africa’s children.

The DA will keep pushing to ensure that all those implicated in the buying and selling of teaching posts are held to account, and that measures are put in place to rid our education system of endemic bribery and corruption. 

Issued by Gavin Davis, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, 29 August 2016