GDE refutes Northview High SGB claims, investigations reinstated

In the article ‘GDE shields corrupt principal’ North Eastern Tribune, week ending 14 November, and in the earlier article in the paper ‘Northview High School is embroiled by controversy’, the members stated that after numerous failed attempts by the complainants to get the department to investigate the matter, they contacted the paper in desperation. Among their grievances in the article, GDE probes Northview High School for financial irregularities, North Eastern Tribune, week ending 23 September, they demanded a forensic audit for 2012; and they wanted the department to investigate the unusual use of five receipt books in one financial year.

Members said they had invited the department to the school to engage with them on what was happening, but department officials didn’t attend to their request. In her response to the paper, in the first article, the department’s spokesperson, Phumla Sekhonyane said the department was conducting a forensic investigation into various allegations of financial irregularities at the school. Sekhonyane later told the paper that they stopped the investigation because of lack of evidence. “The department could not proceed with preliminary investigations due to lack of evidence,” she said.

This didn’t go down well with the complainants. One member said there were questions to be answered by both the district and the province. The member said there was no acknowledgement of receipts handed to the office of the head of department. One member asked, ‘What type of evidence were they looking for in their preliminary investigations?’. The members said in their memo that they invited the department to a meeting to give them further information pertaining to the allegations and the department never went to them. They alleged that the department was shielding the ‘corrupt principal’.

However, the allegations were dismissed by the department as they showed a change of heart as they stated that investigations were continuing. “The department would like to dismiss the impression created in the paper that the department is shielding the principal of North View High school against allegations of corruption. The department has appointed a forensic investigation to look into allegations raised against the principal. Yes, we can confirm that initially, preliminary investigation into this matter revealed that there was lack of evidence to proceed with this matter. However, due to our commitment to clean governance, we decided to pursue this matter and appointed an independent firm to look into these allegations.” Sekhonyane added that investigations were not finished and that’s the reason the department had not provided the findings of the investigation to the school community.