‘Sextortion’ used against female students for good grades – report

Corruption Watch released a new report which revealed the corruption in certain areas of South Africa’s education sector.

The Sound the Alarm report highlights 3 667 reports of education-related corruption received between 2012 and 2021 – this represents 10% of the total reports received during this period.

“These point to widespread misappropriation of resources, acts of bribery, sextortion, abuse of authority, and blatant flouting of employment and procurement processes,” Corruption Watch writes.

Basic and Higher Education institutions

The hotspots where most cases originate are Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Eastern Cape. In schools, Corruption Watch lists misappropriation of resources (accounting for 45% of corruption cases), maladministration (accounting for 17%) and abuse of authority (accounting for 15%) rank as the highest.

It was stated that principals and school governing body members were implicated as the primary culprits. Other prevalent incidents are that of bribery and extortion, including allegations of sextortion, and cases that relate to employment irregularities.

The aforementioned allegations were consistently made by whistleblowers over the time period the data was collected in.

Sextortion in schools

The report states that in some instances, whistle-blowers reported acts of sextortion. This is a type of corruption where women are told to provide sexual favours in order to benefit financially or career-wise. This extends further in the education sector as female students were being asked to do the same with educators in return for good marks/grades.

“This type of corruption extends further in the education sector with female students being asked to sleep with educators for good grades,”

the report reads.

Scandal-hit Gauteng hospital spent R500k on SKINNY JEANS

Meanwhile, it was reported that we could think of a million things that a medical facility needs before it bulk-buys skinny jeans. But here we are. Gauteng‘s Tembisa Hospital CEO Ashley Mthunzi has come under fresh scrutiny on Tuesday, after a new investigation revealed more bizarre spending habits.

As well as forking out for luxury armchairs and overpriced hand towels, the Gauteng hospital also decided that 200 pairs of skinny jeans made for a necessary purchase. In total, 200 items were bought by the facility – amounting to R2 500 each.

There’s something dreadfully wrong with this transaction. First and foremost, any purchase of R500 000 or over must go through a tender process. Anything under can be signed off directly. And wouldn’t you just know it, Ashley Mthunzi managed to procure these skinny jeans for R498 000. Read the full story here.