News24white.png Leaked report on jobs for cash scandal lacks credibility, says SADTU Amanda Khoza, News24, Durban, 26 March 2016 The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) on Saturday said the soon-to-be-released ministerial task team (MTT) report on the investigation into the jobs-for-cash scandal lacks credibility. The union said in a statement that a leaked interim report raised concerns and did not reflect accurately what was happening on the ground. The union said it was concerned that the report was leaked to the media before the affected parties were given a copy. "The MTT has made bold accusations that union members use the patronage system to secure elevation to senior posts in government and Parliament, thus casting aspersions on former leaders of SADTU and other unions some of whom serve as cabinet ministers," the statement said. "The MTT was requested to provide supporting evidence of this and or withdraw these unfounded allegations. The MTT has refused to do so. Of the 81 cases investigated by the MTT only 38 were found to be worthy of further investigation. "Of the 81 cases investigated the name of SADTU is associated or mentioned in respect of 22 cases. Of the 22 cases.... no further action is recommended in respect of 12 and further action is recommended in respect of seven. "Thus of the total 81 cases further action was recommended in respect of seven cases involving SADTU members." The union also expressed its concern that the task team had not found evidence to support some of the allegations made. "The MTT ought to have investigated whether people who made the allegations did not abuse their processes or make false accusations to advance their personal interests. This is important both to ensure that people are not violated and their credibility questioned owing to spurious allegations." The union said action should be taken against people who made false allegations to the department. "The MTT has made specific bold allegations that [a] member of the executive council of the Gauteng province has stated to it that 'the major union is in charge of education' in his province. It also states that the Free State MEC 'regards teacher unions as a major problem because they lack discipline'. "The MTT also appears to have interviewed various heads of departments. The Gauteng HOD is reported as stating that 'SADTU is the elephant in the room', the HOD for North West... is reported to have stated that SADTU controls appointments at schools and the department and the HOD for Mpumalanga is reported as stating that in her province SADTU holds marches to have officials removed from office." SADTU said that after studying the leaked report it asked the task team to allow it to respond to the allegations but this request had been refused. "The MTT has also made a very specific finding that in North West, 85% senior positions have been deployed there by SADTU. SADTU has requested the MTT to provide evidence and details of these deployments, to no avail." SADTU said it had also asked the MTT to explain its methodology in conducting the investigation. "SADTU cannot associate itself with a position that seeks to brand all teachers as appointed irregularly in the absence of empirical evidence. The MTT has refused to clarify its methodology in this regard." The union said selective leaking of the information sought to influence public opinion for specific political ends. "It should, therefore, come as no surprise that this is the reason the interim report was leaked and the DA, which appear to have inside information, is so excited. "We take serious exception to the approach adopted by the Minister which is consistent with the attitude of the MTT by releasing the final report before addressing our specific concerns that we have sent to the MTT on three occasions." The union is demanding that it be given a copy of the report. From: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/leaked-report-on-jobs-for-cash-scanda l-lacks-credibility-sadtu-20160326 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
