Not too long ago, the MEC for Education in the North West province, Viola Motsumi, boarded a plane with six work colleagues at a cost of R1 million. The destination? The Special Winter Olympics, held in Italy.
What Motsumi thought about on boarding the plane was her dreams of hosting the National Special Olympics 2026. The evidence suggests that Viola Motsumi should have stayed in South Africa to deal with a more pressing issue, the issue of scholar transport.
Over the last three years, scholar transport in the North West province has been in the spotlight. In article after article, the issue of scholar transport has been described as “shocking”. One of the many ironies in this debacle is that this article was published on the North West Provincial Legislature website, stating that “among the most alarming discoveries was a bus carrying 90 learners, far exceeding capacity, while transporting a 20-litre container filled with diesel. It was also found with broken seats, a clear hazard for young passengers.”
Another article on the same North West Legislature website goes on to say that “the Committee resolved that amongst others, the Department of Education must commission an urgent study to locate the 9,045 learners in need of scholar transport but not receiving it. The study must detail the affected schools, identify whether these students are still attending, or if they have dropped out, and assess the full impact; and to submit a detailed report on the 21 learners of Phakedi Primary, who last attended school in March 2023 due to a lack of transport after the previous service provider’s contract expired.”
On her return from the “less than R1 million trip to Italy”, Motsumi found herself in the spotlight. This was not because of the scandal surrounding scholar transport, not because of the unnecessary trip to Italy, but because she missed a South Africa Human Rights inquiry about scholar transport.
Before the department’s true state of affairs is revealed, here are a couple of points already shared on news platforms. Six work colleagues from Motsumi’s department joined her in Italy, even though none of the athletes attending the Special Olympics were representing the North West province. According to an article in OFM, the department spent R18,400 on visa applications, R162,570 on plane tickets and a whopping R392,973 on accommodation and meals. Motsumi received preferential treatment on this trip, flying business class at a cost of R75,768 and her accommodation cost an excessive amount of R60,179. The final blow was a cost of R244,682, for merely transporting the said officials around the city of Turin.
Regardless, the real cost far exceeds the R1 million trip to Italy. Numerous articles report that children are dying, being sexually assaulted, and being seriously injured while trying to make it to and from school. And then there are the more than 9,000 children who are missing more than a year of school because the department hasn’t provided the requisite transport.
The details on these allegations of departmental neglect can be found in the hundreds of pages of audit reports, signed off by Motsumi. Combing through two years of audit reports, a pattern of corruption, lack of accountability, and failure to fulfil the department’s obligations emerges.
For the years 2023 and 2024, the department reported spending R43 million on transport, R73 million on catering, R111 million on venues and facilities, R141 million on fleet services, and a travel and subsistence bill of R189 million. A further R265 million was spent on consultants and R170 million on agencies and outsourced services.
For 2024 alone, a mere R5 million for the entire province was spent on sports and recreation: this from a department that reported a vacancy rate of 46% in 2023/2024 while making plans to host the National Special Olympics in 2026.
Unfortunately, this is not where the story ends. The department’s annual report for 2023/2024 highlights the department’s failure to comply with the National Feeding Scheme grant conditions. Even with a R622 million budget, “the department failed to ensure oversight on how schools are carrying out their responsibilities. The non-compliance is therefore likely to result in substantial harm to the learners due to continued exposure to these serious health risks and unhygienic conditions where food is prepared, stored, and handled at the schools, and the short and long-term impact of not providing the required balanced healthy meals, as well as exposing learners to health risks that might result in sickness and other related defects caused by unhygienic spaces.”
One must wonder what the plans are for the Special Olympics. What will Motsumi focus on first? The crumbling municipal infrastructure? The measly sports budgets? Or the starving children due to feeding-scheme conditions not being met?
We must recognise that R1 million, although not a large amount comparatively speaking, could be used to hire a taxi twice a day to help small children travel to school and return home.
The situation in the department, under the failed leadership of Motsumi, is a tragedy. Stealing and looting children’s opportunities for a bright future while parading good intentions on live television should be a criminal offence.
It is shameful that corruption, self-aggrandisement, and entitlement snuff out the hopes of a better future for our children. And no matter which direction we look in, it would be foolish to expect any level of accountability.
[Photo: North West Provincial Government]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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