By Johnathan Paoli

South Africans are on tenterhooks ahead of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act deadline this week.

Political parties in the Government of National Unity were given three months to find a compromise on contentious sections of the Act.

Friday is D-Day.

Spokesperson for the Presidency, Vincent Magwenya, said that President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to make a decision following the conclusion of ongoing negotiations.

“The president is waiting for the outcome of those talks,” Magwenya said.

The Act, signed into law in September, has sparked controversy, particularly over Sections 4 and five, which shift the responsibility for school admissions and language policies from School Governing Bodies to provincial education departments.

While the deadline is Friday, it does not mean that the president will decide what to do at the end of the week.

The SA Democratic Teachers’ Union has issued an urgent letter to Ramaphosa, demanding the immediate implementation of Sections 4 and 5 of the legislation.

Sadtu, which is the country’s largest teacher union, has warned that failure to implement the law in its entirety would result in legal and industrial action.

In the letter, Sadtu reminded Ramaphosa that the Act was passed to address historical imbalances and promote access to quality public education.

It said the Act has not been challenged in court for its constitutionality, nor has any court declared it invalid. Therefore, there was no lawful reason to delay its implementation.

Sadtu believes that the postponement of the implementation of these sections is politically motivated, primarily driven by objections from Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube and the Democratic Alliance.

The union pointed out that the Act had undergone more than a decade of consultation, with the DA participating in the process.

Furthermore, it rejected a bilateral agreement signed between the minister and Solidarity at the National Economic Development and Labour Council, describing it as an attempt to promote racial discrimination in schools.

But DA basic education spokesperson Delmaine Christians told Inside Education that the Presidency was yet to provide further guidelines on the way forward.

“I expect that there will be a multi-party discussion in the new year to clear up any further issues.”

While Sadtu supports the legislation, Solidarity and AfriForum are vehemently opposed to the disputed clauses.

Solidarity spokesperson Werner Human warned that the clauses could violate the Constitution and stressed the need for more time to create the necessary norms and regulations.

The DA has also criticised any attempts to force the dismissal of Gwarube.

Party leader John Steenhuisen has defended Gwarube, accusing factions within the ANC of using the dispute to target her politically.

INSIDE EDUCATION

By Guillaume Massol

In the age of generative AI, we face a major challenge: the growing gap between technological advancements and a humanistic understanding of education. This divide threatens our ability to use AI tools wisely and our capacity to foresee their societal impact.

Generative AI is profoundly shaping our everyday educational experiences in classrooms and in decision-making institutions. It is transforming, with remarkable speed, how we learn and create.

In traditional education, most students, regardless of background, ability or temperament, followed a general curriculum designed for the collective rather than the individual. In an era where individuality and personalisation have become pillars of modernity, the limitations of this approach are clear. Yet, many educational stakeholders – students, teachers and policymakers – struggle to grasp how generative AI can enhance individual learning while addressing ethical and societal challenges.

This lack of understanding creates tensions, hindering the harmonious integration of generative AI in education.

Personalised learning

It is not that the concept of personalised learning is new. In his 1762 work Emile, or On Education, Jean-Jacques Rousseau advocated for education tailored to each student’s needs and interests. More recently, educator Célestin Freinet promoted an approach that respected each child’s rhythm and curiosity.

In France, these methods have remained on the margins of the education system, limited by the demands of mass education. The 1833 Guizot law, which mandated primary education, and the 1975 Haby reform, which established a unified secondary school system, sought to promote equality through uniformity. While these reforms widened access to education, they have often been criticised for neglecting the diversity of students’ talents and aptitudes.

Today, generative AI presents an opportunity to address the challenges of personalised learning that traditional education struggles to overcome.

With its data analysis capabilities, generative AI promises real-time, tailored adaptation to individual needs without overburdening teachers. Using sophisticated algorithms, generative AI can analyse students’ performances, learning styles and even preferences, designing custom learning paths that adjust levels of difficulty and types of exercises as students progress.

Harvard’s tailored generative AI tutor illustrates generative AI’s ability to personalise education. Integrated into a physics course, it significantly boosted student engagement by providing real-time support and tailored feedback. However, Harvard professors demonstrated that generative AI should augment, not replace, human instruction, emphasising the distinct yet complementary strengths of both.

While AI excels in delivering personalised feedback and fostering engagement through data-driven insights, it lacks the nuanced contextual understanding and adaptability that human educators bring to the classroom, especially in nurturing critical thinking and ethical reasoning.

Indeed, overreliance on AI could undermine the teacher’s role as a guide for deeper intellectual exploration. The professors advocated for comprehensive teacher training programmes that integrate ethical and pedagogical frameworks, ensuring AI serves as a tool to enhance, rather than detract from, the humanistic mission of education.

Another area of concern is generative AI’s effect on creativity. If an algorithm guides every aspect of a student’s learning, are they still free to explore, make mistakes and pursue unpredictable paths that are often the most intellectually fruitful?

Research conducted at the University of South Carolina found that while tools like ChatGPT helped students brainstorm effectively, they also made students overly reliant on generative AI, reducing their confidence in their own creative capabilities. Many students reported that generative AI’s ideas influenced their thinking, limiting independent exploration.

Teacher training

Digital-native students intuitively use these technologies, yet they often lack an understanding of the ethical and philosophical implications. Today’s teachers are caught between the call to innovate and a lack of sufficient training. To bridge these gaps, a deep rethinking of education is needed.

It is crucial to integrate generative AI epistemology into teacher training to help teachers understand how generative AI systems acquire, process and generate knowledge. For example, in France, the AI4T (Artificial Intelligence for and by teachers) project equips educators with tools such as MOOCs (massive open online courses) and open textbooks to integrate AI into classrooms.

The initiative emphasises ethical considerations like transparency and equity while fostering critical understanding of AI’s capabilities. By providing practical and epistemological training, AI4T helps teachers navigate the challenges of personalised, inclusive learning environments.

Similarly, in the United States, the EducateAI initiative, launched by the National Science Foundation, provides resources for teachers across educational levels to ensure accessible and inclusive AI education. Additionally, the AI for Education organisation offers “Train-the-Trainer” programmes, enabling school staff to develop expertise in generative AI and deliver high-quality professional development within their institutions.

This training should not turn teachers into engineers but should give them insights into the ethical, social and philosophical aspects surrounding generative AI. Teachers with this background would be able to make these complex technologies more accessible to students and foster critical thinking about generative AI’s uses. This expanded role for teachers is key to democratising understanding of generative AI and encouraging an informed debate about its role in education.

Generative AI integration must not come at the expense of fostering critical thinking, creativity, empathy and the development of ethical reasoning – on the contrary, it should reinforce them. These principles, central to a humanistic understanding of education, ensure that learning remains focused on the holistic growth of individuals rather than solely on technological efficiency.

Generative AI in education should be guided by goals and values collectively defined by all educational stakeholders. It is essential to prevent these technologies from evolving autonomously, disconnected from the real needs of learners and teachers. Only in this way can we shape a future where generative AI enhances our humanity, realising a vision of technology that serves emancipatory education.

Guillaume develops art and design projects using code, with a special focus on machine learning techniques.

The Conversation

By Edwin Naidu

In one of her first media engagements since her appointment as Minister of Higher Education and Training, Nobuhle Nkabane told Inside Education that she would push for more women to occupy senior roles in the country’s heavily male-dominated ivory towers of learning. 

“I envision more women PhD holders with extensive experience in the sector taking up the space as VCs [vice-chancellors] at the institutions of higher learning, and challenging the status quo,” Nkabane said.  

Since her appointment, three of South Africa’s top institutions – the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape and Stellenbosch University– have not heeded the minister’s call. They have appointed men to senior posts despite women being on the shortlist at each institution. 

Last month, UCT installed Professor Mosa Moshabela as its 11th vice-chancellor. UWC named Professor Robert Balfour as its candidate to formally take over on 1 January. Professor Deresh Ramjugernath, Stellenbosch University’s current Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Learning and Teaching, has been appointed as the its next rector and vice-chancellor.  

All three are seasoned higher education leaders with proven track records. However, there still seems to be a bias against women in the top roles at the best tertiary institutions in the country. 

Former director of Higher Education Resources-South Africa (HERS-SA) Brightness Mangolothi once lamented that some institutions have not had a woman in charge since democracy, although gender equality is a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal.

It’s documented that South Africa has had 20 women vice-chancellors since democracy, the first being Prof. Brenda Gourley at the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal), followed by the University of Cape Town, where Dr Mamphela Ramphele made history as the first Black female vice-chancellor in 1996.

Those institutions that have had women vice-chancellors have not replaced them with other women, with the exception of the University of Zululand. It had appointed two women vice-chancellors – Prof. Rachel Gumbi (2003) and Prof. Fikile Mazibuko (2010) – before the incumbent, Prof. Xoliswa Mtose, who is currently serving her second term. 

In 2023, for the first time, South African universities had seven women vice-chancellors.

A similar pattern is evident in other countries on the continent. Despite the best efforts of the Association of African Universities (AAU), the most current statistic shows that of 1400 African universities, just 41 are led by women. 

A research paper titled ‘Gender Perspectives on Academic Leadership in African Universities’, published in a journal by academics Roseanne Diab, Phyllis Kalele, Muthise Bulani, Fred K Boateng and Madeleine Mukeshimana, found that women are under-represented in higher education leadership worldwide, with the gender gap even more pronounced in African nations.

The findings of a study funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada confirmed the under-representation of women leaders in a selection of African countries. 

That research shows that only 24% of the top 200 universities in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings are led by women. Given that the world average for women faculty representation in tertiary education institutions increased from 33.6% in 1990 to 43.2% in 2020, the writers found the gender gap in leadership striking.

While her predecessor’s track record on gender parity in tertiary education is poor, Minister Nkabane, as a woman, must do more to change this narrative than Dr Blade Nzimande, who has never engaged a woman as Director-General under his watch. It is imperative to ensure equal opportunities for all in the corridors of learning. 

Perhaps Nkabane needs to make use of a carrot-and-stick approach. Reward those institutions that take cognisance of gender equality by allocating them more resources for research, while penalising those that maintain the old boys’ club approach.

The Commission on Gender Equality has conducted studies at universities. However, it has few tools to use against those who continue to ignore gender parity as integral to transforming the education sector. 

More broadly, on the continent, organisations such as the AAU must heed this mandate since it is an important part of the Science Granting Councils Initiative, of which gender and inclusivity are recurring themes. 

What about some pressure from the African Union, so keen on Agenda 2063, when some of us may not be alive to witness what it is championing? 

Change is needed sooner rather than later. Given her commitment, Nkabane should have more success than her predecessors and lead the way to gender equality at the highest levels of South Africa’s higher education institutions. 

Edwin Naidu is the editor of Inside Education. 

INSIDE EDUCATION

By Pedro Tabensky

A typical student wants a university degree as a ticket to a salary. For this young person, education is a journey towards “having”. And the way to complete the journey is mainly to remember, repeat or reproduce what the teacher says and does.

This having-orientation is understandable given the often precarious realities of life, particularly in the global south, including South Africa, where I am based as a university lecturer. It is understandable, yet it fosters apathy in the classroom, for the monetary aims of students are not typically aligned with the aims of learning.

In response to this situation, for a decade Rhodes University’s Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics has been developing a course called IiNtetho zoBomi, which translates from isiXhosa, one of South Africa’s languages, as “conversations about life”.

IiNtetho zoBomi is a year-long course offered to all students at the university. Over 2,000 have completed it since its inception. It aims to bridge the gap between character education and vocational education. The course shows students how interrelated reading, writing, thinking and being are.

It’s an opportunity for students to think about what matters to them and how to live accordingly. We hope they learn to have a say in how their lives will go. We want them to understand how education will equip them for life – not just work – and promote self-mastery. Ideally, students will realise along the way that self-mastery comes from learning with others in communities of inquiry.

With my colleagues at the centre, I wrote about the course in a recent paper, explaining the thinking behind it and how it works. From initial reticence and outright suspicion, the course is starting to receive broad institutional support from academics and management. The idea has been mooted that it should become a common course for all first-year students.

The course has also received an endorsement from educational sociologist Kathy Luckett and feminist philosopher Ann Cahill. In their review of the course they commented that it had developed “a unique and powerful form of pedagogy that is clearly speaking to students’ interests and existential needs, and effectively providing students with capacities that allow them to author their own thoughts and lives”.

Inquisitiveness versus apathy

If a salary is the overriding motive for pursuing higher education, it helps to explain why so many students seem to lack inquisitiveness to seek knowledge, and hence are not in the correct frame of mind required for deep learning and the human growth that comes with the learning mindset.

This lack of inquisitiveness is also encouraged by the fact that the global university has primarily become a market service provider. The market wants and needs professionals, and universities provide them. This may not be a problem, unless the professional aspect of human life is separated, as it often is, from the central goal of education: to form well-adjusted, autonomous human beings.

This severance between learning for work and learning for life leaves human growth to chance. It fosters the passive absorption of whatever happens to be in the air of the times, instead of the formation of a capacity for critical thinking necessary for autonomy.

Contemporary universities presume that if one looks after people’s career concerns, life will look after itself, which is a grave mistake.

Conversations about life

The course includes student-led lectures, peer dialogues and weekly service learning at local no-fee paying public primary schools. The students also keep journals in which they reflect on their lives in relation to the course’s material.

We introduce students to ideas such as the existential psychologist Erich Fromm’s distinction between “being” and “having” orientations to education. In other words, a good education helps you to be a certain way, not just to have certain things.

Students also learn that “to take freedom for granted is to extinguish the possibility of attaining it”, as expressed in the documentary Creating Freedom: The Lottery of Birth. This is the idea that people are shaped by circumstances, and understanding how these circumstances shape them is a first step in attaining real freedom. We show this documentary to our students in addition to other movies and documentaries about the weekly topics discussed in class.

We encourage students to develop an inner dialogue and understand that they passively absorb much of what their thinking draws on. We challenge students to consider what they see, or fail to see, and how they see it. We invite students to reflect on how external forces like peer pressure and ideology act on them, as do internal forces like the confirmation bias (which motivates us to favour information that confirms what we already believe and to ignore information that doesn’t).

The following idea frames the content of the course: barriers to acting ethically, indeed to autonomy, are produced by psychological, social and political forces.

Then there is the service-learning aspect of Iintetho zoBomi.

This is about the students getting involved in communities and learning through one-on-one interactions with children at no-fee primary schools, helping them with English literacy and life orientation-related schoolwork. Our students learn by teaching learners material that’s related to IiNtetho zoBomi. Service learning helps bring ideas and experiences together.

Responses

We are seeing encouraging results in the form of hundreds of unsolicited comments relating to how the course has transformed the lives of our students.

Most of these comments come from student reflective journals. Lecturers read the journals as the main form of assessment of IiNtetho zoBomi. Some students even wrote articles in local media about what they had learned. In one of the articles, student Tanatswa Chivhere concludes that:

Most of us who have done the course can testify to how it made us more aware of how our thoughts and actions impact the world as a whole. IiNtetho zoBomi has changed the way in which I view my place in the world and how to use that place to better not only my life, but those of others around me.

Tabensky is the Director of the Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics at Rhodes University.

The Conversation

By Johannah Malogadihlare

Fort Hare’s softball team, the Titans, have set their sights on podiums in both the men’s and women’s sections at the University Sports South Africa (USSA) softball tournament in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, this week.

Titans coach Siphelo Gadudu said the team showed exceptional performance last year, and he has instilled a great belief in the squad that more silverware could be brought back to the Eastern Cape.

“I am pushing them very hard. I am deliberately stressing them in the field so they will be able to respond properly during the USSA games,” Gadudu said.

Many have praised the impact he has made since joining the team 12 months ago with his coaching style of pushing players to their limits, while allowing them the freedom to express themselves.

The couch expressed how he helped the team prepare for the tournament, with players required to adjust to different weather conditions on the Highveld.

“It was drizzling last week, and we also had a session in that. The rain made the field wet, so now we will be able to play on ground like that,” Gadudu said.

The university has retained most players from last year with the addition of a few new players. It is its policy to introduce the best players in their system to easily slot in when others graduate.

Last year, Fort Hare’s ladies finished second and the males fourth.

INSIDE EDUCATION

By Levy Masiteng

In a bid to empower students, the Finance and Accounting Services Seta (Fasset) has joined forces with Higher Health to launch a transformative Civic and Soft Skills Programme.

Fasset CEO Ayanda Mafuleka told Inside Education that the initiative was designed to help students at three TVET colleges develop a wide range of key skills, including effective communication, problem-solving, leadership, teamwork, decision-making and conflict resolution.

The programme, which will be launched at three TVET colleges, delves into critical areas such as civic education and responsibility, mental health, gender-based violence, voter education, financial literacy and climate change.

It will equip students with the knowledge and tools to navigate complex gender dynamics and help nurture a generation that is capable of confronting GBV and fostering a more inclusive society.

“A programme such as this will not only educate, but also ensure that our learners feel protected and better understand the various forms of diversity. As a Sector Education and Training Authority, we are concerned about the wellbeing of our beneficiaries and ensuring we deliver well rounded talent to the sector, thus a programme such as this one will assist expertly,” Mafuleka said

Speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the two organisations, Higher Health operations director Nthuseng Mphahlele said the programme would be rolled out as an online course, targeting 150 learners at the College of Cape Town in the Western Cape, eThekwini TVET College in KwaZulu-Natal, and Vhembe TVET College in Limpopo.

She said Fasset and Higher Health shared a commitment to drive social change, promote a more inclusive and compassionate society, and empower young people with the skills and knowledge they needed to succeed in an increasingly complex world.

Fasset CFO Zakariya Alli and Higher Health CEO Ramneek Ahluwalia both emphasised the importance of empowering students with soft skills for workplace success and social entrepreneurship.

“(A total of) 85% of job success actually comes from soft skills. Soft skills not only have the power to strengthen hard skills and the skills economy, but to also create more jobs through social entrepreneurship, thus reducing unemployment,” Ahluwalia noted.

Both organisations expressed their excitement about the future of the partnership, with plans to expand the initiative and explore additional opportunities to empower students and drive social change.

Participants who complete the course will receive a certificate, enhancing their employability and personal growth.

The organisations said this collaboration would help bridge the skills gap in the country by providing students with the knowledge and tools they needed to succeed in both their personal and professional lives.

INSIDE EDUCATION

By Akani Nkuna

Poor sanitation is a reality for many schools in South Africa. In an effort to deal with this situation, including pit latrines, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has launched the Safe Schools App.

It is a digital platform that aims to improve the safety and hygiene of schools, ensuring a healthier environment for pupils to learn and thrive.

“What we are doing here today is testament to the power of technology, collaboration and a shared commitment to address the challenges facing our education system,” Gwarube said on Monday.

“The Safe Schools App is more than an application. It is a bold statement to resolve to eliminate unsafe sanitation facilities in schools, and we do so with transparency, with efficiency and accountability.”

The minister told reporters that the app, which was developed by Vodacom, would achieve three key objectives, including providing real time tracking and monitoring of progress to eliminate pit toilets.

“The app includes a dynamic heat map that will allow [the department] to track the progress of pit toilet eradication across the country. This feature ensures that government has access to real time information about our efforts [to deal with the] backlog,” Gwarube said.

In the past, stakeholders such as the SA Human Rights Commission, have raised concerns that the data on pit toilets may be incomplete or unreliable.

“So, this Safe Schools App empowers communities to report any remaining pit toilets in the areas, helping us to close those gaps and ensure that every school is accounted for,” said Gwarube.

The minister said the app could eventually be used as a tool to monitor and track other critical initiatives, such as the National School Nutrition Programme, infrastructure development and the distribution of learning and teaching materials.

“We will be integrating these functions. The app enhances our ability to manage resources effectively and respond swiftly to emerging challenges…,” she said.

“We have a vision that someday we will be able to track the delivery of nutritious meals in our schools, the delivery of textbooks to our schools, and that teachers and principals may be able to report when things have not happened directly on the app… We want to use technology to improve the education sector,” she said.

Hundreds of schools still have pit toilets. The department’s deadline to eradicate pit latrines is 31 March 2025.

INSIDE EDUCATION

By Thapelo Molefe

The Auditor-General of South Africa has delivered a damning report on the state of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), revealing staggering levels of irregular expenditure and governance lapses for the 2022/23 financial year. 

Briefing the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education in Parliament this week, the AG’s Thomas Mamogwe, highlighted deep rooted issues in financial management, compliance and performance reporting, casting a shadow over the institution’s ability to fulfil its mandate of funding South African students.

Irregular expenditure has been a recurring problem for NSFAS, with the AG reporting a cumulative amount of R84 billion. The actual figure may be even higher due to incomplete disclosures. 

“The R84 billion reported is not the full picture,” explained Mamogwe, who is the deputy business unit leader for the AG is the Western Cape.

“We identified significant gaps in the completeness of this amount, which means there could be more irregularities that have yet to be accounted for.”

Over the years, significant irregularities have been recorded, including R25 billion incurred in 2019/20 and R32 billion in 2020/21. 

However, the 2022/23 financial year saw a reduction to R136 million, indicating some progress in addressing these issues.

Among the most significant findings were irregularities linked to two tenders – one for direct payments and the other for an office lease tender. Both are riddled with governance and compliance violations. 

“In one instance, the bid adjudication committee was not properly constituted, which directly contravenes procurement regulations,” Mamogwe said.

The AG issued an adverse audit opinion on NSFAS’s financial statements, citing major discrepancies. Among these were R10 billion in amounts owed to institutions and R11 billion in amounts owed by institutions. 

These discrepancies stemmed from the close-out project, a process designed to reconcile payments and allocations dating back to 2017.

“The close-out project is crucial for NSFAS to account for its spending accurately,” Mamogwe explained. 

“While some progress has been made, the project remains incomplete, and this has led to significant qualifications in our audit findings.”

In addition to financial mismanagement, the AG identified serious issues with NSFAS’s performance reporting and compliance. Material findings included unsupported claims about key performance indicators and a lack of explanations for discrepancies between targets and outcomes.

“The institution would report certain achievements, but when we asked for supporting evidence, it was either inadequate or missing entirely,” said Mamogwe.

“This lack of transparency undermines NSFAS’s credibility.”

Compliance issues extended to the late submission of financial statements and ineffective revenue collection. Supply chain management violations were another area of concern. 

“Contracts were awarded based on criteria not stipulated in the original tender documents, which is a clear breach of procurement rules,” Mamogwe explained.

AGSA attributed many of NSFAS’s challenges to systemic weaknesses, including outdated manual systems, insufficient IT infrastructure, and a lack of skilled personnel. 

“The scheme has grown significantly over the years, but its systems and capacity have not evolved to meet the increased demand,” Mamogwe said.

He also criticised the institution’s leadership for inadequate oversight.

“There was a failure to properly monitor and address these issues at a governance level, which has compounded the problems.”

NSFAS remains under investigation by the Special Investigating Unit as part of Proclamation R88 of 2022. The SIU is tasked with probing allegations of irregularities, including those related to direct payment service providers. 

“This investigation is ongoing, and its findings will be critical in addressing the root causes of these issues,” Mamogwe remarked.

Despite the grim findings, the AG’s office has acknowledged some progress in NSFAS’s efforts to improve governance and transparency. 

“We have seen some improvements, particularly in addressing manual payments and implementing credibility checks,” Mamogwe noted.

“However, there is still a long way to go.”

Committee chairperson Tebogo Letsie said the adverse findings were scary to say the least.

“It cannot get lower than this. The financial statements are bad. We now understand why the 2022/2023 report was late. It does not look good,” Letsie said

NSFAS administrator Sithembiso Freeman Nomvalo updated MPs on efforts to improve operations, including establishing a disbursements unit and appointing a manager to oversee annual internal reconciliations.

“We’ve added capacity for data validation and are institutionalising periodic reconciliations to reduce reliance on external service providers,” said Nomvalo. 

He also highlighted the development of a real-time dashboard to track disbursements, which was currently in testing, and plans to withhold payments to institutions when necessary.

Addressing audit concerns, Nomvalo noted improved contract management and significant progress in the NSFAS’s digital transformation, with 62% of its ICT strategy implemented. 

“Continuous improvements remain a priority,” he added.

INSIDE EDUCATION

By Thapelo Molefe

Members of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Education have recommended that the Special Investigating Unit probe a dodgy tender awarded by the Western Cape government.

The committee held a crucial session this week to consider allegations on irregularities regarding the R50-million IT tender.

The tender, facilitated by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), has sparked controversy following a forensic investigation by law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, raising questions about transparency and governance.

The firm has flagged multiple procedural issues, including the acceptance of a bid that contained two pricing options, which was in breach of procurement regulations.

Despite these findings, the department has maintained its stance that there is no wrongdoing on its part.

A legal advisor to the department, Ian Steyn, explained that the department relied on SITA’s recommendation when awarding the tender to Blue Networks Consortium (BNC).

“There were no findings of fraud or corruption against WCED officials,” Steyn told the committee. 

“Our officials participated as required in the SITA bid evaluation committee, and all decisions were based on SITA’s recommendations.”

Steyn clarified that the department was unaware of any irregularities at the time of the award.

He also rejected the findings of the forensic report, which identified procedural lapses, claiming that senior counsel reviewed the report and found its conclusions unfounded.

The tender process began when the department requested SITA to procure local area network services for Western Cape schools. SITA’s evaluation committees, including department officials, reviewed bids and ultimately recommended BNC.

However, forensic investigation, commissioned by SITA, uncovered governance failures, including inconsistencies in the bid evaluation process and a controversial round robin vote by SITA’s board.

A director at the firm, Tendai Jangara, highlighted these issues in her presentation.

“The language in the tender created confusion, particularly around pricing options,” Jangara explained. 

“This highlights the need for clearer and more transparent procurement processes.”

She added that some evaluators failed to seek necessary clarifications from bidders, potentially disadvantaging competitors like Dimension Data.

SITA’s interim board later withdrew its recommendation to award the tender to BNC, citing findings from the investigation. This decision placed the department in a precarious position, as it had already entered into a contract with BNC.

Steyn explained the department’s response.

“The decision to award the tender is final and cannot be unilaterally revoked or terminated by the WCED.”

SITA has since initiated legal proceedings to review and set aside the decision to  award the tender to BNC. 

Steyn emphasised the department’s intention to oppose the application, citing financial and operational risks.

“The WCED will continue to honour the contract with BNC unless and until valid and substantiated reasons exist to take steps to set it aside,” Steyn said.

However, committee member Lerato Ngobeni questioned the department’s judgement in continuing to honour the contract. 

“Just because the department was not directly implicated doesn’t absolve it of accountability,” Ngobeni said. 

“How can we ignore the red flags raised by an independent forensic investigation?”

Ngobeni questioned the rationale behind awarding the tender despite alleged irregularities, and highlighted a lack of transparency regarding BNC’s ownership and qualifications.

“We must follow this matter to its logical conclusion,” Ngobeni stated. “It is unacceptable that the public has no clarity on who BNC is, and why this contract was awarded amid apparent discrepancies.”

Several committee members recommended escalating the matter to the Auditor-General and the SIU to ensure accountability.

“We must write to the Treasury to validate the contract and involve the Hawks to investigate this matter thoroughly,” said a committee member Sedukanelo Louw. “The current board is clearly conflicted and incapable of providing an impartial review.”

The tender in question was awarded to BNC despite findings of irregularities by both an external audit report and the Auditor-General.

“You knew what specifications you set up,” said committee chairperson Joy Maimela.

“It can’t be a justification to say there was ambiguity or confusion on the bidders’ part. You set the specifications, so you were not confused.”

Maimela argued that BNC gained an unfair advantage by submitting two pricing options for a single bid, a move that she said materially impacted the awarding of the tender. 

“Even if they were confused, you were not confused,” she stated emphatically.

Maimela highlighted the AGSA’s findings, which flagged irregularities in the procurement process months after the tender was awarded. She questioned why action was not taken earlier, especially since initial concerns were raised in a report by the law firm.

“We are being told that no reviewable irregularities exist, yet AGSA is now flagging the very same issues,” Maimela said. 

“This points to complacency. You had the chance to halt the project when the concerns first arose, but you continued.”

SITA acting managing director Simphiwe Dzengwa confirmed that the tender process had significant shortcomings, and there had been a suggestion that both the SITA and the department approach the courts.

However, Dzengwa noted that the province later opted to rely on its own legal opinion, further complicating the resolution process.

Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mondli Gungubele, criticised this move, stating that the Western Cape’s decision to act unilaterally undermined efforts to resolve the matter collaboratively. 

He called for the board to either implement the forensic report’s findings or seek judicial review, describing their current approach as “misgovernance”.

The committee chairperson reiterated the need for swift and decisive action.

“We cannot allow SITA’s governance crisis to undermine critical service delivery, especially in areas as vital as education.”

INSIDE EDUCATION

By Thapelo Molefe

The Auditor-General has raised significant concerns about Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Seta’s (Merseta) governance and financial management.

A presentation at the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education this week revealed that the entity, tasked with driving skills development in South Africa, received a qualified audit opinion for the second consecutive year due to ongoing financial mismanagement, systemic inefficiencies and repeated compliance failures.

“Merseta’s audit outcome is a clear indication that the necessary corrective measures are not being implemented effectively,” said AG senior audit manager Zamahlangu Mditshwa. 

“The entity failed to resolve discrepancies in its financial reporting, particularly regarding discretionary grant expenditures from prior years. This, coupled with material misstatements in financial statements and irregular expenditure of R2.9 million, points to a worrying regression.”

The AG highlighted key operational shortcomings, including a lack of coordination between Merseta’s operational and financial units. 

This disconnect led to repeated errors in financial reporting and undermined the credibility of its performance information. 

“The root cause is the absence of a structured and functional relationship between operations and finance. Without this, we will continue to see a ripple effect of mismanagement and non-compliance,” added Mditshwa.

AG senior manager Desmond Phungula provided further details, explaining that the audit identified payments made outside contract periods, exceeded contract values, and unsupported performance achievements in certain programs. 

“For Programme 3, we found that one reported achievement was not backed by evidence, and several targets were not met. Additionally, irregular expenditure occurred because payments were made without adhering to proper controls,” Phungula said.

The AG also pointed to broader systemic issues affecting Merseta and other Sector Education and Training Authorities. 

A lack of an integrated system for data sharing among Setas has led to duplicated learner funding and instances where deceased individuals are still listed as beneficiaries. 

“We identified cases where Merseta funded learners multiple times or learners were recorded in multiple Setas. This is a glaring inefficiency,” Mditshwa said. “An integrated system is critical to eliminate these costly errors.”

Another concern raised was the significant interest retained by Setas instead of being utilised for their core mandate of skills development. 

“We need to revisit the legislation to ensure that funds are not misdirected. Skills development is too critical for South Africa’s future to allow for these inefficiencies,” Mditshwa urged.

The AG recommended a series of interventions, including strengthening project management, improving internal controls and ensuring proper accountability through consequence management. 

“It is essential that we create a culture of accountability. Action plans must address root causes, not just symptoms, and there must be consequences for those responsible for repeated failures,” Mditshwa emphasised.

Phungula also underscored the urgency of timely reporting, noting that late submissions compromised oversight and corrective actions. 

“We finalised Merseta’s audit in October, halfway through the next financial year. This delay limits the time available to address identified issues before the next audit cycle,” he said.

INSIDE EDUCATION