ACCUSATIONS of fraud and corruption have once again hit the Gauteng Department of Education. This came after a group of anonymous department employees accused their head of Human Resources, Kgabo Morifi, and the HoD, Rufus Mmutlana, of an elaborate scheme that coerced junior administrators to divert payments and stipends meant for students, funded under the department’s bursary scheme, the Gauteng City Region Academy (GCRA).
These staffers have penned a letter to the Hawks to initiate a probe into the matter. In it, the two officials are accused to using their influence to coerce employees to change, alter and tamper with the names and ID numbers of deserving students and replace them with people who are linked or associated with the pair.
“We, the undersigned, are employees of the Gauteng Department of Education responsible for administration of the stipend details of interns and temporary employees.
“Due to the sensitive nature of this complaint and our concern for potential victimisation, we wish to submit this report anonymously.”
In the past few years, the Gauteng Provincial Government set aside R560 million annually to fund bursaries for more than 4 000 deserving matric top achievers from townships and no-fee paying schools.
“Under the instruction of Mr Kgabo Morifi, and supported by Mr Rufus Mmutlana as Mr Morifi claimed, we were unlawfully coerced to wrongfully capture stipend details on the Persal system. This resulted in payments being made to individuals who are not beneficiaries of the Gauteng Department of Education’s programmes.
“Some of these payments have been directed towards personal acquaintances of Mr Morifi and Mr Mmutlana, particularly girlfriends who have received financial compensation in exchange for sexual personal favours,” the letter read.
“These actions have led to substantial losses to the department, amounting to millions of rand, which could have been used to benefit legitimate interns and temporary employees,” the employees say.
The staffers said they were threatened with dismissal and other reprisals if they reported some of these transgressions to the department.
Besides incurring wasteful expenditure, they said, the fraudulent transactions have inconvenienced some interns who have not been paid their stipends since April this year.
“Staff members involved in administering this fraudulent information were coerced and threatened by both Mr Morifi and Mr Mmutlana.
“We were informed that if we reported these discrepancies to higher authorities, including law enforcement, we would face immediate dismissal from our positions.
“These threats have instilled fear among staff members, preventing us from reporting the ongoing corruption and fraud until now.
“Many legitimate interns who should have received stipends since April 2024 have not been paid due to mismanagement and fraudulent activities.
“As a result, they have been forced to seek recourse through the CCMA, further burdening the department,” reads part of the letter to the Hawks which The Star has seen.
The Star has also seen a letter to Morifi by the acting head of HR, Lydia Phehla, addressing some of the concerns.
This came after the department embarked on a systems migration of stipend and beneficiary statements. Following training on the new systems, the department found that there were duplications and mixing of ID numbers and other details which affected payment of stipends to bursary recipients.
“The GCRA administrators and talent management and innovation directorate started capturing information on the ESS system using the spreadsheet for each project implemented by the different host employers.
“It is during this time that it encountered duplicate information captured, mixing of ID numbers and banking details of beneficiaries, using the same bank account for two beneficiaries, resulting in one of them being unpaid,” the letter states.
Phehla requests Morifi to give a full report on the cause of some of the identified discrepancies which the department says has caused reputational risk and a loss of R21 000 paid to an incorrect account holder.
“Given the risks associated with the errors indicated, you are required to provide a detailed report of steps taken to rectify situation and the consequence management steps,” Phehla states.
Responding to questions sent by The Star, the spokesperson for the department denied the allegations levelled against the two officials or having received complaints from the concerned employees.
“The department has not received any complaints from employees regarding these allegations. If any employee has substantive information, it should be reported without fear.
“It is, in fact, disingenuous to claim that the said senior officials, can compel or ‘force’ any employee regarding what to capture and how to operate our employee personnel system Persal, as they are not responsible for operating such a system nor are they the supervisors of the employees operating the system.
“All employees who are captured and placed in various roles and responsibilities are remunerated accordingly. As such no one can instruct that anyone not procedurally appointed nor captured in the system be unlawfully paid by the department.
“These are serious allegations that must be reported and substantiated with material evidence. Until such time that they are reported, we regard them as unsubstantiated allegations,“ he said.
Attempts to get comment from Morifi and Mmutlana were unsuccessful by the time of going to print.
The GCRA bursary covers tuition, books, accommodation, a transport allowance, a once-off laptop allowance, and a living allowance. It also covers undergraduate studies, as well as postgraduate studies.
The Star