The IFP in KwaZulu-Natal wants to know from the MEC of Education, Peggy Nkonyeni, how she will recover the huge amount of public funds lost due to the postponement of a two-day education summit which was set to start yesterday in Durban.
“The MEC must give us clarity on how her department will recover the money lost as a result of this postponement. Public funds have been wasted through poor planning. This shows that the Department of Education is leaderless and it is in dire need of competent leadership. The summit was postponed because of pressure from SADTU, which again shows that the department is not in control of education in KZN,” said IFP Spokesperson on Education, Mrs Thembeni kaMadlopha-Mthethwa, MPL.
“We are concerned about the failure by provincial government departments to adhere to the call by the MEC of Finance, Belinda Scott, that they must avoid fruitless and wasteful expenditure. This department continues to hire expensive venues to hold unnecessary events, which have resulted in wasteful expenditure of public funds,” continued Mrs Madlopha-Mthethwa.
“We demand that the MEC must furnish us with a detailed report of all costs incurred in the organisation of this summit. We want to know how much the department paid to hire the Olive Convention Centre; which company won the tender to organise this summit; how many companies tendered for this job and what was the total loss of public funds. All the details must be made public,” concluded Madlopha-Mthethwa.
Issued by:
IFP KZN Education Spokesperson,
Mrs Thembeni KaMadlopha-Mthethwa, MPL, 071 884 3844 or 079 114 3015
Media enquiries:
Mr Phendulani Biyase, IFP KZN Legislature Media Liaison Officer, 073 024 5675