Chief director suspended over students fiasco in Russia
A CHIEF director in the Mpumalanga Education Department has been suspended over a series of financial violations that resulted in students enrolled at Russian universities facing expulsion and eviction from their accommodation facilities.
The suspension follows a provincial delegation’s visit to the Russian Federation led by Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, tasked with looking into the long-standing matter.
Provincial Education spokesperson Gerald Sambo said the chief director was placed on precautionary suspension while the government investigated what went wrong.
“The premier’s visit to Russia uncovered a lot of questions that still need to be answered. For this reason, the chief director responsible for the student exchange programme had to be placed on suspension so that there is no interference or any sense of meddling.
“Once the investigation is concluded, the premier or MEC will make pronouncements, and if the chief director did not violate any laws, the suspension will be lifted, but it is only the outcome of the investigation that will shine a light on the way forward,” Sambo said.
Mtshweni-Tsipane said the student exchange programme involved a provincially-procured company to manage 221 students enrolled at 11 Russian institutions of higher learning.
These students were studying aviation, engineering, medicine and information technology.
The premier said they found there was also an agency in Russia that dealt with the management of the Mpumalanga students, which resulted in the bloating of rates and invoices.
“That agency went to the universities and said ‘we will get you students from foreign countries who want to study here in Russia’.
“…The agency, with whom we had no contract, took over the process and handed the students over to the universities. From time to time, the university would bill them and they would pay the invoices,” said Mtshweni-Tsipane.
“Upon receipt of the invoices, the agency would then generate their own invoices. That has been a problem for us, which was also raised by the auditor-general. When you compare the fee structures from the various universities, there are discrepancies,” she said. The premier said the amounts charged differed vastly from verified rates. “We went on this trip to ascertain what was going on. These children were phoning day in and day out to say that they were being evicted from their respective residential areas. Some of the students were no longer at the hostels that we were paying for.”
DA provincial leader Jane Sithole said the party welcomed the suspension of the chief director. “Over the past few months, these students have been pleading for help…”