Warwick Bruce Chapman

The following is a an article from the Daily Dispatch with background provided by Gareth Van Onselen, Executive Director Of Communications for the Democratic Alliance.

BACKGROUND: As far as I am aware, no one has ever done an analysis about the ANC’s relationship with the Eastern Cape – perhaps the DA should – but it really is the most fascinating (and depressing) thing. The Eastern Cape is the ANC’s political heartland. It is where the ANC was born, where its greatest leaders hail from, where its history is housed. Politically, historically, culturally, this is the ANC’s home. You would think it would follow that the ruling party would have gone out its way to make the Eastern Cape its flagship province – an example of how the ANC in government can make a real and tangible difference to the lives of the poorest of the poor? Not so. Instead, it is the one of the ANC’s most abusive relationships. To this day, the Eastern Cape remains a disaster zone on numerous important fronts. And this is taking into account the fact that you can’t change things over night. Even then, after 16 years, it seems to deliberately neglect and compromise good governance in this province. In all the key indicators: human development, education, audit outcomes, corruption, service delivery, the Eastern Cape bottoms out. Here is the latest example, from today’s Dispatch, about the state of that province’s education department. Just read it. How on earth is it possible to manage something so critically important, so badly, for so long? The A-G says the department should be put in ‘intensive care’, that it is mired in fraud, that it is ‘getting worse day by day’, that R1.5 billion cannot be accounted for, that this is the fifth consecutive year it finances are in a shambles. The ANC itself says the department has “totally collapsed”. It really is self destructive behaviour on a special level, and tells you everything about the ANC’s attitude – not just to the citizens of South Africa’s poorest province, but to the well-being of the ANC’s greatest supporters. I wonder if a single person will be fired?

The Daily Dispatch

By: Mayibongwe Maqhina
18 August 2010

East Cape education in critical condition

EASTERN Cape Auditor-General (AG) Singa Ngqwala yesterday called for the urgent takeover of the provincial Education Department, saying it was “literally in an intensive care unit (ICU) situation”.

“If you look at the history of the department, I don’t think they deserve to be given a budget,” Ngqwala bluntly told the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) in the Bhisho Legislature yesterday.

“We have tried our level best. The department must be taken to the ICU. We have a situation where fraudulent activities are taking place. It is getting worse day by day,” he said.

Yesterday Scopa scrutinised the department’s finances for the 2008-2009 financial year where it was revealed R1.5 billion had not been accounted for and therefore deemed as irregular expenditure by the AG.

The department also did not provide the AG with supporting documents for an additional R2.2bn during the same financial year for audit purposes, among other things.

And the 2009-2010 audit, to be made public soon, paints an equally bleak picture as Ngqwala also could not express an audit opinion.

The latest audit to be released for 2009-2010 is the fifth consecutive year the department finances have been in a sorry state.

Ngqwala said the situation was so bad that R12 million “mysteriously” went missing from the department’s coffers earlier this year.

Ngqwala said allegations had been levelled against its internal audit head, who was now suspended.

“Drastic action needs to happen. It is not nice to audit the department,” Ngqwala said .

Committee members agreed the situation was critical, saying the department needed a complete overhaul and takeover by national government.

Nkosinathi Kuluta of Cope said the department was “completely hopeless”.

“The state of affairs is still the same as it was in 1994. The systems are there, but they are not complied with .”

Kuluta said the national Education Department should administer its budget.

The ANC’s Mzoleli Mrara said the department had “totally collapsed”.

“What makes it breathe are the schools,” said Mrara, who is also the education portfolio chairperson.

He said a new organogram with competent personnel was needed, and it should get rid of managers who were “populists hell-bent to please officials”.

Committee chairperson Max Mhlati , of the UDM, said Scopa would haul the department before several meetings a year to monitor its compliance with Treasury regulations.

At yesterday’s meeting, Scopa rejected the department’s written responses on actions taken to correct anomalies.

It also found that the department had submitted supporting documents to Scopa which it failed to provide to the AG for audit purposes.

Acting superintendent-general Ronnie Swartz said there was already “urgent intervention” in the department’s financial management.

An audit team would meet weekly to follow up on issues raised by the AG, and managers would be served with letters asking why they should not be charged with contravening the Public Finance Management Act.

He blamed the department’s woes on leadership instability, turnover in MECs and SGs, as well as the lack of accountability of managers. There was a problem of “unruly elements” in the department who victimised indecisive managers for taking decisions.