Lawyers acting for former Eastern Cape Department of Education superintendent general Modidima Mannya have served the premier and education MEC with a letter demanding R1,5-million in damages for defamation
David Macfarlane and Roshila Pillay
A clique-ridden morass of corruption, financial unaccountability, nepotism, appointment scams, procurement irregularities and dysfunctional management that’s what Modidima Mannya says he was appointed as superintendent general of the Eastern Cape Department of Education to tackle.
Yet three months and multiple death threats later, he is out of a job and ostracised by the very authorities who headhunted him for the post. And the reasons the province has turned against him remain obscure. Mannya’s attorneys on Wednesday sent a letter of demand to Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile and MEC for Education and Training Stone Sizani for R1,5-million in damages for defamation. Mannya also intends to take the matter up with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. He says Sizani recruited him because of what the MEC described as “the chaotic state of the department”, and gave him the task of “turning around the whole department”.
Sizani apparently offered Mannya a “special contract” that would have required no appointment interview; but Mannya insisted on a “transparent appointment process”. He was then interviewed for the post by the MECs for finance and arts, in a panel Sizani chaired. Mannya says he found a “free-for-all situation” in the department. Scams appeared to govern staff appointments, with some women applicants required “to sleep their way up” the departmental hierarchy, and other applicants needing to pay for promotion. There were widespread management irregularities involving “non-compliance with procurement procedures”.
One deputy director with no authority to make departmental purchases wielded R1-million to acquire chalkboard dusters and ended up purchasing billboard rollers, says Mannya, who also found wholescale unauthorised rental of computer equipment. To cap it all the department had “no accurate records of finances”. Within three months, Mannya had put 10 senior managers (from the rank of deputy director up) on suspension. One manager was subsequently charged, found guilty and dismissed. The other nine have been charged with various misdemeanours and their cases are pending. There is, says Mannya, “a huge backlog of disciplinary cases” that contributes to delays in finalising cases. “I reported everything I was doing to Sizani, including the suspensions. He [Sizani] knows everything that goes on in that department,” says Mannya, expressing puzzlement about Sizani’s change of attitude towards him.
“In almost all actions I took, there were political representations and responses. Administrative decisions are constantly interfered with by politicians,” Mannya claims. And “almost everyone you touch is connected”, he says, giving the example of the chief director (human resources), whom he suspended, whose wife is close to the premier’s wife. “People are afraid to talk. I touched a raw nerve but what exactly I’m not sure. “You are expected to be a puppet: unquestioning sensitivity and loyalty to the African National Congress is needed,” says Mannya, who was born and raised in the Northern Province. “The situation in the Eastern Cape is difficult. The ANC needs to investigate itself.” A succession of death threats led Mannya to seek police protection, which was at first granted and then withdrawn, on orders from police headquarters in Pretoria. Fearing for his life, Mannya submitted his resignation.
Sizani approached the premier to request the province to pay for guarding Mannya and on January 29 wrote to Mannya, saying that “the provincial government has undertaken to provide you with adequate security” and inviting Mannya to withdraw his resignation. Mannya did so in a letter dated February 2 but his withdrawal of his resignation was not accepted. Mannya remains in the dark as to why. Repeated attempts to contact Sizani for clarification failed. The premier’s representative, Manelise Wolela, referred the Mail & Guardian to the premier’s press statement of February 7. This refers in unspecific terms to Mannya’s “mismanagement” and committal of “offences”, and an erosion of trust between Mannya and Sizani. Mannya is “surprised” at the accusations Sizani has been levelling against him in government and in the media. Sizani told the Eastern Cape legislature on February 8 that “we will accuse [Mannya] in a court of law” and “Mannya will defend himself fairly in the court of law”. Sizani has also been quoted in the media as referring to “criminal charges” that will be laid against Mannya.
Mannya says no criminal charges have been laid against him as yet, he would have no idea what such charges might be, and the first he heard of the possibility of legal action against himself was when he saw the province’s premier speaking on TV. Wolela said investigations are under way into “alleged financial misconduct” on Mannya’s part. Mannya rejects the only two detailed accusations so far made against him. Responding to the charge that he advertised 4 000 teacher posts without ascertaining that proper budget provisions were in place, Mannya says the posts were advertised on October 6, whereas he took up his own position in the department on October 17. The other accusation, from the premier’s office, that he appointed two officials to director posts “without advertising the posts”, is also not true, Mannya claims. On the contrary, the MEC himself headhunted the two officials; and Mannya has shown the M&G documents signed by Sizani approving these appointments.
Minister of Education Kader Asmal has expressed “concern at the turn of events in the Eastern Cape”. However, these events “fall within the competency and jurisdiction of the provincial government and therefore I have no legal authority to intervene. I have … urged the MEC and the premier to resolve this matter as soon as possible since I am anxious that provincial education runs smoothly to the benefit of the people in the province … “Any allegations of mismanagement and wrongdoing should be brought to the attention of the provincial authorities. In addition there are other avenues such as the public protector which have the responsibility to investigate substantive allegations of this nature.” The Congress of South African Students (Cosas), the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) and the South African National Civics Organisation have all expressed concern and shock at the province’s handling of Mannya, with Cosas and Sadtu demanding his reinstatement.