Minister of Education Naledi Pandor’s assurances to whistle-blowers are hollow if her department cannot take the minor administrative steps needed to protect them, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.
”Seven months after the exposure of fraud in the Mpumalanga matric examinations, the only person who has been penalised by the Mpumalanga education department is one of the whistle-blowers,” DA education spokesperson Helen Zille said in a statement.
Vicky Breytenbach, a teacher from the Kamhola school in Barberton — one of the schools implicated in the cheating — was told last week that she had been dismissed, Zille said.
”This comes after a string of assurances, from Minister Naledi Pandor downwards, that the whistle-blowers in the saga would be protected and supported in the department’s efforts to bring the cheats to book and to root out examination fraud.”
Breytenbach, who reported on the cheating at her school, had been too afraid to return to the school because of ongoing intimidation and death threats.
As a result of the pressures facing her, she had been receiving medical attention. She had followed departmental procedures and submitted the necessary affidavits and medical certificates relating to her absence.
But the departmental spokesperson, Thomas Msiza, claimed she had not followed ”proper procedures”. Her salary was frozen at the end of April because, according to the department, she had exhausted her sick leave, Zille said.
She was subsequently told that she had been dismissed. This message was conveyed to her telephonically on Wednesday June 1 by the Director General of Education, Duncan Hindle.
”Minister Naledi Pandor’s assurances to whistle-blowers are hollow indeed if her department cannot take the minor administrative steps needed to protect Mrs Breytenbach.
”The department’s treatment of Mrs Breytenbach, and the Mpumalanga whistle-blowers in general, will be a major disincentive to others who are in a position to expose fraud. Verbal assurances to whistle-blowers will fool no one.”
At a recent consultative conference on education, Pandor expressed concern at the mass exodus of pupils and good teachers from township schools.
Although many township schools are not in the appalling state of Kamhola, Pandor would do well to study this school for some of the explanations for this exodus, Zille said. — Sapa