TimesLIVE reports that four Eastern Cape education department officials will finally get their day in court after they allegedly stole R59m meant for schoolbooks in a corruption case dating back to 2014.

Department deputy director-general Raymond Tywakadi, deputy director for the department’s IT support services, Tyronne Fourie, former chief education specialist in the Learner Teacher Support Material Unit (LTSM), Noxolo Gwarube, and former department superintendent general and head of department, Mthunywa Ngonzo, are expected to stand trial from 23 to 27 May 2022. They will appear alongside their co-accused, businessman Johannes Hermanus Smith, a trustee and representative of the Siegesmund Trust. According to Eastern Cape National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani, the five have been charged with corruption, fraud, attempted fraud, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act. They were released on R5,000 bail each when they made their first court appearance on 17 May 2021. The case stems from 2014 when the department decided to centralise the supply of supplementary resource material comprising mostly of IT equipment and photocopiers. The decision to centralise meant that schools no longer procured such equipment from the State Information Technology Agency, as the department implemented its own processes to procure the equipment for schools. This process allegedly led to the corruption claimed by the NPA (further details in report).

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Aron Hyman at TimesLIVE

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