The education department in the Eastern Cape is in a financial crisis of unimaginable proportions, as thousands of ghost teachers strain the its limited coffers. And the new education boss is out to bust them.
The education department in the Eastern Cape is in a financial crisis of unimaginable proportions, as thousands of ghost teachers strain the its limited coffers. And the new education boss is out to bust them.
Modidima Maanya, the province's Superintendent-General of Education, explained to more than 1 000 school principals and leaders of school governing bodies at Nangoza Jebe Hall in Port Elizabeth on Thursday, how he planned to uproot corruption in the department.
Principals were the first line of defence against these "ghosts" – teachers on the payroll who never set foot in a classroom – he said, instructing them to report to such fraud to their district offices. In the 6 000 schools in the Eastern Cape, Mannya said, 5 000 ghost teachers were on the payroll.
"Principals have to declare under oath who is working in their schools," the fiery former advocate said. He said the department would soon conduct audits of staff complements at schools and that officials who were caught hosting the "ghosts" would be dismissed.
In the Port Elizabeth district alone, Mannya said, 99 teachers' salaries had been frozen because the district director could not locate them. The department had not been able to advertise any new posts for 2011, despite the fact that some schools had no principal, or lacked the full staff complement they needed to function optimally.
Mannya attributed this to the projected overspending of R1.8 billion by March 2011 – the end of the financial year. And for that he blamed the ghost teachers. He said the department was using an overdraft facility to pay teachers' salaries and this put his accounting officers under tremendous pressure.
"We are in a big quagmire," he said, explaining that if he kept on the current 6000 temporary and substitute teachers, the department would not be able to pay their salaries. He had already transferred R150 million from the infrastructure budget to pay staff salaries.
While other provinces had ordered books for as far into the future as 2012, the procurement of stationery for Eastern Cape schools had been delayed, Mannya said. On a positive note, however, textbooks were already being distributed. Mannya urged school governing bodies to support principals, who were the managers of the schools, to ensure their smooth running.
Principals, in turn, should not undermine the governing bodies. No fewer than 480 teachers in the province had been displaced because of infighting between principals and members of governing bodies. Mannya encouraged governing bodies to raise their concerns when the principal was not performing, but warned that he would dissolve governing bodies which were destabilising schools. "I won't consider any complaints from SGBs which have already chased a principal away," he said.
Emphasising that only he had the power to hire and fire educators, he threw down the gauntlet: "Don't contest my powers. I don't want to enter into a power struggle, because I will win that war," he said. As part of his attack on corruption, Mannya said he had taken over the administration of the Fort Beaufort district office, after discovering that all the officials had been eyeing the position of district director. "I appointed myself to the post," he declared, adding that he had also appointed a chief director to run a "problematic" school in Mdantsane.
