Johnathan Paoli
THE Democratic Alliance (DA) has called upon President Cyril Ramaphosa to proclaim a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigation into all the projects that have been undertaken by the National Skills Fund (NSF) to date.
DA Deputy Spokesperson on Higher Education Desiree van der Walt said on Monday that while the SIU had indicated its request for a proclamation allowing it to investigate the NSF, President Ramaphosa has been dragging his feet.
Van der Walt said her party’s similar calls to Ramaphosa last year, fell on deaf ears, following the then Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande’s efforts to keep the Nexus Forensic Services (NFS) Report confidential.
“We hope that the new Government of National Unity (GNU) Minister of Higher Education, Nobuhle Nkabane, will not follow in the footsteps of her predecessor and with the help of her deputy ministers, she put the wellbeing of students first and root out the corruption that seems rife in her Department,” van der Walt said.
The outcry comes after the investigation on ten NSF projects, which revealed corruption, lack of good governance, unfilled vacant posts and poor financial systems and project management processes in place which amounted to the loss of R5 billion, more than the entire annual budget for the financial year.
Van der Walt said, in light of allegations by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) on Nzimande’s involvement in corruption at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and the department’s return of R580 million to the National Treasury in the past two years – there was clearly a need for a top-down investigation of the department as a whole.
Five of the ten cases investigated by the forensic service, revealed a total amount of R286 million in unaccounted funds.
Fund recipients in the Eastern Cape reportedly failed to account for a R131 million advance they were given to train 1 025 artisans, while a rabbit farm in KwaZulu Natal spent only R1.6 of its R123 million grant money on matters relating to the farm.
Other examples include: an Ekurhuleni TVET is alleged to have wasted R17 million, a human resources consultancy received R13.4 million that they could not account for and another TVET college in Port Elizabeth could not account for R1.2 million of the R7 million received from the NSF.
Before its split under the GNU, the Department of Higher Education and Training provided an update to the Standing Committee for Public Accounts (SCOPA) in February this year, with the report noting a dismal failure to ensure proper compliance by NSF staff, resulting in undeserving grants.
“Almost all the tender entities breached the provisions of the memorandum of agreement by not opening a dedicated bank account to deposit the funds paid by the NSF,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, Nzimande has lashed back at the allegations, following the publishing of two articles from the City Press.
In a statement on Monday, spokesperson for the ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation denied the Minister’s involvement and said as far back as 2021, Nzimande instituted a forensic investigation into the matter.
Mbele said the Minister appointed a Ministerial Task Team to conduct a strategic review of the NSF, its general operations and its efficiency and relevance to the national skills priorities of the country.
He denied allegations of trying to keep the report “under wraps” and said the Minister was solely concerned with not jeopardising the disciplinary and legal actions against suspected individuals.
“All that I requested was for the SCOPA to treat this report in terms of rule 189 of the National Assembly rules, especially sub-rule (1)(c) read with sub-rule (4)(a) that until all processes before the law enforcement agencies and internal departmental disciplinary process in particular are concluded, premature release of the report could jeopardise this,” Nzimande said.
Mbele said the Minister remained unfazed and unshaken by the attempts of certain media groups to tarnish his name and remained focused on driving the country’s science, technology and innovation policy agenda in order to solve the country’s most urgent national challenges.
INSIDE EDUCATION
