Premier deathly quiet about irregular appointments at Free State Department of Education

Staff reporter

Bloemfontein – The Free State Premier, Mxolisi Dukwana is deathly quiet over irregular appointments at Free State Education, despite committing his administration will root out corruption including positions occupied by officials who do not meet the requirements. In one of his addresses, the Premier went as far as saying “there is Chief Director who has National Diploma”.

In August 2022, Thulas Nxesi, who was Minister of Public Service and Administration said that in the Free State, the Department of Agriculture tops the chats when it comes to senior managers without the required qualifications with 16 senior managers, followed by the Department of Education with 14, the Department of Health with 13, and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) with 9.

The reply further included that the Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Destea) with 8, whereas the Office of the Premier with 7, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure and the Department of Social Development both have 6, the Department of Police, Roads, and Transport together with the Department of Finance/Treasury have 5, the Department of Sports, Arts, Culture, and Recreation has 3, and the department with the least senior managers without required qualifications is the Department of Human Settlements, with 2.

This was disputed but the office of the premier citing errors on the PERSAL system but we have also reported such in various government departments including the very same office of the premier and DESTEA.

In November 2022 the Public Service Commission released a report after investigating twenty-one cases of alleged irregular appointments, this was after JJ Wessels laid a complaint with the Office of PSC after a series of our articles.

PSC report forces Makgoe to halt the recruitment process

The report in our possession was signed off on 15 November 2022 giving the department 60 days to respond and /or act and we can safely say the 60 days have lapsed even worse, 4 and half months after the report was released, no action was taken.

Sources at PSC say a meeting was held between its commissioner, Dr. Boshoff, and Premier, Mxolisi Dukwana to brief the Premier about the infamous report as City Press was circling around it after a list of their questions went viral.

There are three more cases of alleged irregular appointments at Education, Human Settlement, and Ofice of the Premier that have come our way and once we have verified we will publish them.

In other news, the staff at Sport, Arts, Culture, and Recreation are complaining that Dukwana has appointed Adv Tsoarelo Malakoane to act as HoD overlooking Chief Directors in Kutloano Tlhakudi and Vincent Khetha.

Their complaints stem from the fact that he will not have time for SACR and will always prioritize Education over them and their department needs someone who will focus on their matters.

SACR has not had a permanent HoD since Stanley Malope was moved to Premier’s office until his contract came to an end.

Premier Dukwana did not respond to our questions sent three weeks ago.

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