R25,000 job scam: Desperate teachers risk arrest for speaking out in KwaZulu-Natal

Desperate teachers in KwaZulu-Natal, who each paid R25 000 to “buy” jobs at a school in the Ulundi area, have been warned by the department of education that if they want to be whistle-blowers, they themselves could end up being criminally charged.

Four women paid R100 000 in cash for teaching jobs they never received. Three of the women are from Ulundi in the Zululand district.

One said they heard about the “job for sale” from a brother of the teacher who received the money. “Her brother stays in Ulundi and said he noticed I had spent years unemployed. He said many people at Mame Primary School had paid for jobs so he could assist me since his sister worked there.”

Another 33-year-old woman said she had studied with the two others and could not miss the opportunity.

“I have three children and have been unemployed since 2019. I depend on the Sassa grant so I borrowed money to pay R25 000 for the job,” she said.

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Borrowed money and broken promises

Another said she borrowed money from her sister, because they had been promised the jobs in the next academic year.

The modus operandi was a meeting with the brother who referred them to his hiring sister.

“They told us to have the money in cash because the department would trace the money if we paid (in)to her account,” she said.

“We would meet him at Plaza, a shopping mall in Ulundi and give him the money in a brown envelope.”

Another woman from KwaNongoma said although she was working at a private school, she was desperate to leave.

“Some months we would get paid, others not, so when this came up I didn’t think twice as at home no-one works. It was my wish to get a good job so I could change the situation,” she said.

After months of waiting, she received no phone call for an interview or appointment.

“I became sick from stress and couldn’t even sleep because I had borrowed the money,” said the Nongoma resident.

“Initially they told me they had given the money to someone in Pietermaritzburg and there was a hold-up because that person was being searched. Then later she told me there was nothing we could do because she was married to a police officer.”

“We reported the incident to the department of education but we were discouraged by the fact that if we revealed the name of the teacher and other people involved we would be arrested. I suspected the person we were reporting this matter to, could also be involved.”

The department’s spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said: “We call upon those who are raising these allegations to open cases with the police because this is extortion (crime). Second, bring evidence to us. Third, be prepared to be prosecuted themselves because they are involved in committing a crime.”

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