By Thapelo Molefe
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the Eastern Cape have called on the National Treasury to reverse its decision to withhold R500 million in school infrastructure grants from the provincial Department of Education, saying that the move unfairly punishes learners instead of targeting those responsible for alleged misconduct.
Treasury withheld the allocation after the department reportedly breached procurement and legislative requirements, including the irregular reallocation of nearly R300 million to an unauthorised Information and Communications Technology (ICT) project.
The EFF said the decision, while rooted in compliance concerns, has dire consequences for pupils who already attend rundown and unsafe schools.
In a statement released this week, the party said the punitive measures should be directed at the officials who authorised the irregular spending, rather than at the entire education system.
“As the EFF, we believe that the current approach does not affect those who have created the problem. Instead, it punishes the ordinary people, particularly learners, who did not reallocate funds without authorisation,” the party said.
It called on Treasury to “review and set aside” the blanket withholding of funds.
It said Treasury should instead issue directives for strong consequence management. This includes dismissals of officials where evidence of wrongdoing is clear, criminal charges where warranted, and precautionary suspensions pending full investigations where evidence is insufficient for immediate action.
The party also demanded transparency from Eastern Cape Education MEC Fundile Gadi, saying he must explain how the department lost half a billion rand meant for repairing and improving school infrastructure.
“He must tell us what corrective action has been taken to reverse this decision by the National Treasury, which has the potential to cripple the infrastructure in our schools even further,” the party said.
The EFF said the incident was part of a wider pattern of “corruption, non-compliance, and maladministration” within the ANC-led government under President Cyril Ramaphosa, and Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane.
The Eastern Cape Department of Education did not respond to questions from Inside Education.
INSIDE EDUCATION
