The Department of Basic Education notes a media statement issued by DA Member of Parliament, Mr Gavin Davis regarding his written request to Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga to debate the Jobs for Cash report in Parliament.

It seems disingenuous of Mr Davis to write to the Minister, and then instead of waiting for a response from the Minister, he chooses to take his request to the media. Not even giving the Minister a chance to respond to his written request.

It is clear that his request is not genuinely for the purposes of Parliamentary oversight, but rather an attempt to get mileage in the media.  Mr Davis’ actions indicate that he is trying to create an impression that the Minister is hiding something despite the fact that the entire process has been completely transparent, and the initial report and recommendations have been released for public consumption.

This makes it difficult to determine if the Minister should respond to his request via the media or to respond to Mr Davis himself in writing. There are established Parliamentary processes for handling such matters so there is never a reason to play to the gallery as the MP is doing.

There has never been any point where we have attempted to keep the report from Parliament, however while the initial report has been released to the public, the work of the forensic investigation is still ongoing. The Minister is awaiting delivery of this final forensic report from the Ministerial Task Team. The Minister has indicated that she will bring the report to the Portfolio Committee on Education once the forensic investigation is completed so as to deal with it holistically.

All in all the Ministerial Task Team report indicated it had uncovered 81 cases. 43 of these cases were finalised, 22 needed further investigations, and 16 other cases of potential wrong doing were uncovered.

The identified cases were sent to Provincial Education Departments to take action and provide progress reports to the DBE on implementation of the recommendations.

In the meantime the Minister has requested an update from Provinces as to progress made with regards to the recommendations of the report. The Department has begun a policy development process in line with some of the recommendations that require a long term intervention. These will also go to Parliament in due course in line with normal policy development processes.

The DBE is committed to transparent accountability despite Mr Davis’ attempt to try to disrupt this sensitive process that in some instances has even put lives in danger.  We call on him to calm down and respect due process.

ENQUIRIES:             Elijah Mhlanga – 083 580 8275 | Troy Martens – 079 899 3070