The trip that cost Free State Education millions

Following a Sunday World story published on 6 February 2022

https://sundayworld.co.za/news/free-state-paid-r500k-per-class-to-prove-blacks-can-do-maths/
 new details of the trip have emerged after the discovery of the alleged deviation from the approved trip by former Free State Premier Ace Magashule. 

According to the approved submission in possession of this publication, the delegation of the Free State Department of Education comprising of MEC Tate Makgoe, Mamiki Maboya, Mzamo Jacobs and TJ Tsoai was approved on 20 October 2010 because it was his prerogative to approve overseas trips and relevant delegations. 

According to a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, the purpose of the trip was to go to Chennai to visit a company called Sankhyaa Learning (Pty) Ltd (a trading name since used for various South African contracts) owned by Mr Harsh. The delegation arrived in Chennai on a Sunday evening. 

On Monday, they were allegedly joined by Peter Sebiloane, a businessman from the Vaal. Neither the MEC nor Maboya cared to explain Sebiloane’s presence, but he simply joined the delegation and was very cordial with the MEC and Maboya, in particular. It was clear that Jacobs and TJ Tsoai were in the dark about his presence and reasons for him being part of a delegation.”

The source continued:

“The delegation was shortly thereafter joined by the late Lichaba Phasha, who was killed execution style by unknown assailants in Johannesburg. Once more, it is unclear how Phasha got to join the delegation and on whose account he joined the delegation. However, it must be noted that Phasha didn’t stay for the whole duration of the visit, at most he stayed for a day or two and then flew back to South Africa.” 

This was corroborated by Sebiloane during Phasha’s memorial service. This publication is in possession of Sebiloane’s video. 

The department visited Sankhyaa for the purpose of procuring mathematics software to assist learners in preparation for matric interventions. It must be noted that Kwazulu Natal(KZN) had used this software prior to the Free State. It is not known why the delegation did not visit KZN for a fact-finding mission and chose a very expensive exercise of a visit to India instead.

It is alleged that after discussions with Sankhyaa and discussing the HEYMATH programme, the delegation then decided to travel to Delhi, not withstanding the fact that this part of the trip was not approved by the Premier.

It was at this point that Harsh (Sankhyaa) was requested to pay for the flights of all the members of the delegation including Sebiloane. The objective to go to Delhi was initially under the pretext of observing how the HEYMATH programme works. Whilst in Delhi, it’s alleged MEC Makgoe and Maboya requested to be taken to a company called NTI. Harsh refused to take the delegation to NTI because the latter are their competitors. He finally agreed to drop the delegation at NTI and later collect them when they were done with their meeting. 

NTI is a very well renowned IT company, which also had contracts to train teachers in IT literacy even in the UK. The company also incubated IT students from KZN FET College and would later place them at various companies for their immediate employment. This was then unveiled as the company that had a very good MATHSLABS programme to the delegation. 

Another source with intimate knowledge said it became clear why Sibiloane was in India. 

“It soon became apparent that the objective of having Peter Sebiloane there was primarily regarding his interest in MATHSLABS. The delegation was then fetched from NTI after the meeting and duly flew back to Chennai and then to South Africa,” the source said. 

Almost two weeks after the trip to India, it’s alleged that Mamiki Maboya facilitated an urgent management meeting. The meeting was called for the sole purpose of considering a presentation made by Sebiloane and one representative from NTI. It’s alleged at this stage that it became even more apparent that the MEC Makgoe and Mamiki Maboya had acted together to invite Sebiloane in order for him to pitch for the MATHSLABS. 

“It was also clear that management was duped into legitimising what appeared as an unsolicited proposal at that time, not knowing that the MEC and Mamiki Maboya premeditated the proposal together with Peter Sebiloane. What followed thereafter paints a picture of a generally corrupt relationship between the three,” said the source.

Instead of following an open tender process in line with Section 217 of the Constitution and the PFMA by following a transparent, fair and cost effective process of testing the market through an open tender process, the department took the route of a deviation and granted to EDUCIMAT (Sebiloane’s company) the contract to provide MATHSLABS as per their proposal. The bid adjudication committee considered a submission for a deviation.

As soon as Sebiloane was appointed, he allegedly moved swiftly to kick-out NIT as a partner to the proposal. As a result, NIT responded by withholding their software because it was their Intellectual Property. Undeterred Sebiloane with impunity implemented a watered-down MATHSLAB project hence its ultimate collapse according to sources.

Once the deviation was approved, the process was now to fund the whole programme and the department did not have any equitable share to fund the MATHSLABS Programme.

A decision was then taken to use the Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG) to fund the whole programme. However, this was not catered for in the Grant Framework and for the department to use the funds, they must apply to the National Department of Basic Education DG as a transferring authority to approve that the department can use the conditional grant and then amend the grant framework accordingly.

When the AGSA asked for the source of funding the department advised that it was the EIG. The AGSA the wanted to proof that the expenditure was approved by the Director-General of National Department of Education, the department failed to produce such an approval. It is now commonly understood within the department that the approval was never applied for and consequently not granted by the DG.

It is therefore clear that officials flouted the law on instruction and pressure from the MEC and Mamiki Maboya. 

The AGSA dismissed reasons for failure to go out on competitive bidding in favour of a deviation and declared the whole expenditure of R600m as irregular. 

Howard Ndaba, Free State Education spokesperson, did not respond to our questions while Sebiloane could not be reached for comment. 

This is a developing story.