Kimberley - The Department of Education in the Northern Cape has rejected claims that it is spending R40 million to operate just one of the matric camps and that most of that money was ending up in the pockets of senior staff members and politicians in the Province.
A source in the department said on Thursday that senior managers, together with politicians and some private companies, were already benefiting from the millions of rands earmarked to assist the Grade 12 learners coming from the protest-hit areas in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District (JTGD).
“We are dealing with a situation where politicians, senior staff in the department and their business associations are taking advantage of the situation and are benefiting from the camps,” the source said.
“Some staff members and politicians close to this situation are pushing for their friends in business to get tenders to provide services to the learners who are cramped at these matric camps.
“If they are looting R40 million in a camp in Keimoes, one can only imagine how much public money is being wasted in the other camp (in Barkly West),” he added.
Another source said that some of the senior officials of the department were billing the department for booking accommodation for the learners.
“Some officials are cashing in on these camps. Of course the department will deny this, but everyone involved knows that some of the officials who were tasked with looking for accommodation for learners charged the department thousands of rands by posing as agents and/or companies sourcing accommodation on behalf of the department,” the source stated.
He said that several companies appointed to provide the learners with services such as catering and cleaning were also inflating their costs.
“We have service providers who are seriously inflating the rates for the services they are offering for these learners. For instance, one service provider who is delivering powder soap to some of the camps has inflated the prices of the products threefold,” the source stated.
Another source stated that there were instances where learners where fed sub-standard food by some of the companies providing catering at some of the camps.
“The learners are being told that they must not forget that government is helping them and they must accept what they are given. This is despite the fact that the department is paying these service providers a lot of money to provide good services to the children,” she said.
However, the department has rejected claims that it was spending R40 million on operating costs for the matric camp in Upington and that most of the money was ending up in the pockets of staff members or politicians.
“This is a lie. We have only one matric camp accommodating 32 learners from Langeberg Hoër Skool in Olifantshoek. If people have evidence of wrongdoing by any official, we will gladly accompany such individual to the nearest police station for him or her to register a case with the police. This is a lesson our people must learn,” the department’s spokesman, Sydney Stander, said.
“All employees of the department who are business people are supposed to declare their interests with the Premier’s Office. For any person to do business with the department, that person must have registered as a service provider and be on our data base, which is also linked with the Treasury. There is no way that officials could be doing business with the department.
“All services at the Deo Gloria camp are provided by the lodge. There is no other provider that we are paying except the lodge,” Stander stated.
However, he could not disclose how much the department was spending on each camp and where it was getting the funds to operate the camps.
“We have committed to helping all affected learners and this we will do within our means. Hence in some instances we are using existing departmental facilities like schools and hostels,” Stander said. He added that through the budget vote the department does not make provision for protests.
“Protests are like the weather, unpredictable. In this case because for the first time in the history of our Province, schools are clearly targeted, we had to do everything in our power to assist our learners to persevere through their last year of their career. The funds that we have mobilised for these camps come mainly from our re-prioritisation from other programmes which is provided for in terms of policy.”
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