R59 million school books

Image: Flickr

R59 million school books fraud: EC education officials given trial date

The trial has been set for the four Eastern Cape Department of Education officials accused of stealing R59 million meant for school books.

R59 million school books

Image: Flickr

The Eastern Cape’s Magistrate’s court has confirmed a trial date for the four education officials who allegedly stole R59 million meant for school books in 2014, the decision was made on Monday.

TRIAL DATE FOR EASTERN CAPE OFFICIALS R59M SCHOOL BOOKS FRAUD

The trial date has been marked for 23 to 27 May 2022. The four suspects include high-ranking members of the education department and a fifth co-accused businessman.

The quadruple are department deputy director-general Raymond Tywakadi, deputy director for the department’s IT support services, Tyronne Fourie, former chief education specialist in the Learner Teacher Support Material Unit (LTSM), Noxolo Valencia Gwarube, and former department superintendent general and head of department, Mthunywa Lawrence Ngonzo – as well as the fifth suspect, businessman Johannes Hermanus Bouwer Smith, a trustee and representative of the Siegesmund Trust.

“Gwarube was in charge of this project and allegedly never obtained permission from the National Treasury for the budget to be shifted. It is alleged that Ngonzo was aware of the budget split but failed to rectify it,” Eastern Cape National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani said.

SUSPECTS ACCUSED OF TAKING 80% OF MONEY SET FOR SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS

The five suspects, who were granted R5000 bail each in May, face counts of corruption, fraud, attempted fraud, theft, and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act for the R59 million schools books case.

According to the National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Sipho Ngwema, the provincial education office decided to issue Supplementary Resource Material (SRM), mainly IT equipment and photocopiers, which meant that individual schools no longer procured their own materials.

“It is alleged that Gwarube, Ngonzo and Fourie decided that the LTSM Unit would procure SRM, specifically IT including photocopiers, during the 2014-2015 financial year despite the fact that the LTSM Unit had not budgeted for such procurement,” he said.

“It is further alleged that they did this under the pretence that schools were adequately resourced with textbooks. The message internally was that 80% of the textbook budget would be shifted and utilised for the procurement of SRM. There was no budget allocated for SRM and it was decided that the textbook budget would be used to cater for the procurement of SRM,” he said.