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By Vhahangwele Nemakonde

Digital Deputy News Editor


Lesufi striving for mediocrity

It is worrying that a man responsible for educating our kids cares more for political grandstanding than facts.


When your own incompetence is highlighted, what do you do? If you’re Gauteng education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi, you launch personal attacks … as he did yesterday on our young, female, journalist who had the temerity to ask questions about the department’s new, and apparently badly sub-standard, website. Digital experts we spoke to for our story pointed out a number of serious flaws in the website, including its lack of security coding which would make it – and the thousands of parents who use it – vulnerable to hacking and digital sabotage. When we asked for comment from Lesufi’s department, we…

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When your own incompetence is highlighted, what do you do? If you’re Gauteng education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi, you launch personal attacks … as he did yesterday on our young, female, journalist who had the temerity to ask questions about the department’s new, and apparently badly sub-standard, website.

Digital experts we spoke to for our story pointed out a number of serious flaws in the website, including its lack of security coding which would make it – and the thousands of parents who use it – vulnerable to hacking and digital sabotage.

When we asked for comment from Lesufi’s department, we received a curt “We will not respond to any negativity about the website today”. So our questions went unanswered.

Publishing the story with that quote included, in the mind of Lesufi, amounts to “unethical behaviour” by us and our journalist.

It seems we may have touched him on his God complex … perhaps he needs to be “protected” from us in the same way as the former Sars IT head wanted when she got her feet put to the fire in an SABC interview.

It is worrying that a man responsible for educating our kids cares more for political grandstanding than facts. Continue to strive for mediocrity, MEC.

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