By Lebone Rodah Mosima
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of an “obsession” and a campaign to assassinate Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s character, following a Sunday World article alleging corruption in school security tenders linked to matric exams.
In a statement issued on Monday, the department said it rejected the “misleading and sensationalist” online article published on Wednesday, 12 November, headlined, “Matric exams at risk amid alleged Gauteng school security tender corruption – DA”.
“This unfortunate article, which appears to rely solely on a statement issued by the Democratic Alliance (DA), irresponsibly questions the integrity of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations in the province”, the GDE said.
Sunday World reported that the DA had received information from an alleged whistleblower claiming senior GDE officials were engaging in systemic corruption in security tenders for “the protection of matriculation exam papers”.
The newspaper wrote that the GDE “preselected certain companies to receive tenders in exchange for kickbacks ranging from 10% to 20%”, based on the whistleblower’s claims.
The GDE said it was “deeply concerning” that Sunday World published the allegations “without any credible evidence”.
The department said the DA had become desperate in its search for “any opportunity to portray the Premier in a negative light”. It said the article was based “purely on hearsay” and had “chained” these allegations as facts without obtaining direct comment from the department.
“This approach reflects a troubling disregard for journalistic ethics and defeats the impartiality that reporting should embody,” the GDE said.
“We strongly believe that the article is misleading. It amplifies speculation and manufactures a crisis where none exists”.
The department said it condemned the spread of unverified information during the matric examination period.
It added that since the start of the NSC examinations there had been no record of “any breach in security that could compromise the integrity or facilitation of the NSC examination process in Gauteng”.
“We can confirm that all storage and distribution points have been allocated adequate security in line with norms and standards”, the GDE said.
The department said it was adamant that no question papers or scripts had been reported as compromised, and that “all papers are handled exclusively by GDE Examination officials, not by any external service providers”.
Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane said it was “unfortunate [and] irresponsible for anyone to opportunistically share information that questions the integrity of the NSC examinations without any basis”.
INSIDE EDUCATION
