Ministers will assess progress since the Africa Foundational Learning Exchange (FLEX 2024) commitment to end learning poverty within a decade, alongside the declarations from last year's Continental Conference on Education in Mauritania. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The Gauteng education department’s apparent complicity in dysfunctional schools abusing state funds emerged again in the “squandering” of R10 million in three years at a school with woeful matric results.
Schoolchildren need to arrive by at least 6am in the mornings to book a seat, failing which they will contend with bricks and rocks for chairs, owing to the alleged abuse of funds at Kwa-Dukathole Comprehensive School in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni.
When bricks run out, standing in class while trying to concentrate on lessons is what learners must endure in a working-class township desperately needing quality education facilities.
The school had to resort to borrowing R20 000 from a Katlehong loan shark, who has not yet been repaid. No one knows what the loan was for as it was not recorded in any official document.
The effects of the alleged corruption at the high school are evident in the deteriorating matric results, which plummeted from 88% in 2021 to 66.2% last year.
The education department said this week that it was “aware and concerned” about all allegations of corruption at the school, saying an investigation had been launched.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe also confirmed this week that the police were investigating a case of fraud regarding the school.
The fraud case relates to how R70 000 was allegedly stolen from Kwa-Dukathole in January last year after a 2023 Grade 12 learner’s name was allegedly used by school governing body chairperson, Siphamandla Thulo, to syphon the money.
A prefab classroom, into which 60 learners were crammed at Kwa-Dukathole Comprehensive School in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni.
The learner’s name appears in the school’s bank statement as having received R70 000. But parents and the matriculant said they had neither received any money nor knew who Thulo was, adding that he was not related to them.
The Mail & Guardian sourced internal school and Gauteng education department documents, including bank accounts and funds allocation, showing how, from 2021 to last year, Kwa-Dukathole school was allocated nearly R10.1 million by the provincial government.
The government gives money no-fee paying schools, such as Kwa-Dukathole, which are responsible for ordering textbooks and other learning materials, paying for the water and electricity, as well as general maintenance, among other things.
Despite the government providing learning funds, boxes of black and white Casio calculators are stashed inside the senior maths class, and learners are told to bring their own because the school will not provide them.
“The crooked teachers and acting principal are going to take those calculators and sell them, just like they sell the groceries meant for the school’s feeding scheme,” said one concerned teacher, who asked to remain anonymous.
Worse, parents, whose children are not supposed to pay a single cent, were forced to fork out a R250 “donation” per learner at the start of the school year, as well as give the school a 2 500-sheet A4 paper box, retailing for roughly R750, otherwise, learners would not be placed in classes. There are more than 2 100 learners at the school.
Siphamandla Thulo (left), chairperson of the school’s governing body, and Mathuthu Matlala, its principal, have been implicated in misuse of funds.
Looting frenzy
According to the school’s 2023 bank records, Thulo directly paid himself R192 111.15 from January to July. The acting principal Mathuthu Matlala, the same records revealed, received R21 500 in her account from school funds.
The amounts were part of the nearly R1.4 million in dubious payments the governing body and the acting principal authorised, which left the school with R795.51 in its bank account at the end of July.
The result of poor financial management and theft has been broken windows, dilapidated infrastructure, and a dire lack of textbooks and other educational materials, among other things, that are rife at the Katlehong school, with basically nothing to show for the massive government investment.
The apparent wastage of money also included more than R1.5 million for two prefabricated classrooms completed in July last year. On its visit to the school, the M&G saw more than 60 learners crammed into each of the structures in searing Highveld heat.
On average, a standard 3×3 metre prefabricated classroom costs about R27 000, excluding installation. The Kwa-Dukathole classes, as measured by the M&G, were 7×7 metres each.
According to an official internal school note, the contractor, Godfrey Khumalo, was owed R250 000 by the school, with no new furniture bought to bring into the new classrooms.
“Moreover, the project money was supposed to be left with R512 910, which would be enough to buy new furniture for newly built classrooms,” reads the internal note.
Kwa-Dukathole Comprehensive School in Katlehong, (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
This week, Khumalo told the M&G that he planned to begin legal proceedings against the school to receive what he said was more than R300 000 owed to him, interest included.
“At the end of December, the money owed to me was R310 000. The acting school principal [Matlala] and some members of the school governing body begged me not to apply interest just yet, also asking me not to head to court,” Khumalo said.
He accused Gauteng education department official Connie Mphafudi of “laughing” in his face, and telling him that there was nothing the department would do to help him get his money. Mphafudi is the department’s institutional development support officer, or IDSO.
Several documents from the department and the school show that Mphafudi, as the designated official, was aware of all complaints and the alleged abuse of funds, including a “decision…to allow Mr S. Thulo to transfer school money into his account”.
“The school is stuck because the chairperson [Thulo] won’t bring his personal bank statements for perusal,” according to minutes from the 20 November 2023 meeting with Mphafudi.
Khumalo said Mphafudi was disinterested in his plight and that of the school, which is when he decided to take the legal route.
“When you work with people like I do, I allowed the school and the department to rectify their issues before exploring the legal route. I wanted to resolve matters internally, but I can see that they are not interested in fixing this” Khumalo said.
This is the second school during the M&G’s investigation that shows how provincial government officials are seemingly complicit in dysfunctional schools abusing state funds.
In December, the M&G reported that Phahanyana Masemola, principal at Phumula Gardens High School, paid herself R326 684.84 from the school’s funds last year while its infrastructure crumbled, which included a foul smell coming from the unhygienic kitchen used to prepare daily feeding scheme meals for learners.
The dilapidated classrooms at Kwa-Dukathole Comprehensive School in Katlehong lack furniture, so pupils are forced to share chairs or even stand during lessons. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The M&G established this week that Masemola was transferred to Phumula about two years ago by the department after it found that she stole money from Zonkizizwe Secondary School in Ekurhuleni.
In December, the provincial department said Masemola was suspended pending an investigation.
However, internal minutes show that Masemola, with the department’s blessing, is still in charge of the school’s account and carries its bank card.
So dire are Phumula Gardens’ finances that the community policing forum workers, who look after the school’s security, as well as the feeding scheme’s cooking staff, have not been paid their small stipends for January and February.
Documents show that Reuben Ralephata, of the provincial education department’s head office, and Thabo Lebina, the Ekurhuleni district head, are aware of the situation but have not acted.
First-come, first-serve
Tsakane*, a Grade 10 learner at Kwa-Dukathole, walks with a group of four friends to reach the school on time and book a seat — a commodity at the school that works on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The five children, in grades 8 to 10, leave their homes at 5am every morning, walking the roughly 10km from Mopeli Section in Katlehong to Moseleke East, where the school is situated.
“We are better because we do not live too far from the school. Other learners know that, unless someone feels sorry for them, they will have to sit on the floor or stand in class,” Tsakane said.
During the M&G’s visit to the school this week, a mad scramble and sprint to the next lesson was evident during the change of classes as children hurried to secure a seat.
It was a hazardous sight because of the small corridors adding to the risk of a possible stampede.
“The fitter and bigger learners have an advantage over the smaller schoolmates during the change of classes. It is very painful to know that the school receives so much money from the government, but we still have to go through this hardship,” another learner said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Inside the two new prefabricated classrooms that have no furniture, more than 60 learners are crammed inside, contending with the searing Highveld heat wave that passed through the province this week.
(Graphic: John McCann/M&G)
Kwa-Dukathole’s financial troubles have led it to a standoff with a Katlehong loan shark, who lent the school R20 000 in August last year, and said payment should be made by October, but is yet to receive his money.
In a letter to the school dated 30 January, Tshepo Phiri said he wanted the money back, claiming that he gave Thulo the money after the loan shark was introduced to the governing body chairperson by his neighbour, who works at Kwa-Dukathole.
Phiri, in his letter, said Thulo has avoided him, including ignoring calls and text messages that call on the chairperson to make good on his debt.
He wrote that Mphafudi was also aware of the debt.
The school owes a further R121 418.92 for cleaning material it ordered and received but could not pay because it lacked funds, as well as golf T-shirts, caps and hats that were bought for governing body members and senior school staff during a retreat at the beginning of last year.
Gauteng education department spokesperson Steve Mabona said the government was “aware and concerned [about] the allegations of mismanagement of funds levelled against the principal at Kwa-Dukathole Secondary School, and view such allegations in a serious light”.
“Accordingly, we have launched the necessary investigation and the outcome thereof will determine action to be taken,” Mabona said.
He did not respond to questions about Phumula Gardens and the alleged complicity of the department at that school and Kwa-Dukathole. Mabona spoke on behalf of the school, including the governing body, and the department.
He added: “The department is committed to clean governance, transparency, and oversight, and we will deal with any threats that will impact negatively on service delivery and the provision of quality education to all learners in Gauteng.”