Education boss in hot water over ‘bribe’

A SENIOR Eastern Cape education manager has been suspended on a charge of soliciting a bribe in the presence of a bank teller.

This was after the suspect allegedly demanded and later received almost a quarter of the victim’s R96 000 pension payout. A video clip apparently shows the transaction.

Education superintendent-general Themba Kojana confirmed yesterday the department was investigating allegations of fraud against the deputy director, who was put on precautionary suspension on October 9 “pending the internal investigation”.

The victim, a disabled 32-year-old, is a former general worker at a Mbizana school for disabled pupils. He had been battling to get a pension payout for more than two years.

He reported his case to the suspended official earlier this year. The official allegedly tracked down the fraud victim and informed him that his pension payout had been deposited into his bank account, and for that, he would have to pay her R20 000 for processing the claim.

But relatives of the victim did not take kindly to that, and reported the incident to the district director concerned, using the newly established rapid incident report (RIR) hotline.

But that was after the kickback had allegedly already been paid out to the suspect.

The official, who is in her mid-40s and whose name is known to the Daily Dispatch, is a deputy director at the Alfred Nzo east district offices in KwaBhaca (Mount Ayliff).

Kojana said the case was reported on September 29, and investigators who are based in the newly established RIR unit followed up on the case a week later and managed to source footage apparently confirming the official received a kickback.

The investigators received another lead indicating that the R20 000 payment was made at a local branch of a listed bank.

“Our investigators have since acquired the video footage showing clearly that indeed the suspect was with the complainant when he made the withdrawal,” said Kojana.

“We have since handed over the case to the Hawks for criminal invest

The clip, seen by the Dispatch, shows both the suspect and the victim seated in front of a bank teller.

After signing the paperwork, the teller counts R30 000, which is then divided in three batches of R10 000.

The video shows R10 000 being given to the victim while R20 000 is given to the government official.

“The report we received stated the senior official asked the pensioner how much she will get in return for processing the pension payout.

“The former employee offered to pay her R2 000, and she laughed him off saying, ‘I’m not a child. I want R20 000’,” said Kojana.

“This line (RIR) is going to help us deal with corruption from all angles. This is just the tip of an iceberg.”