School brings corruption case against department

A SCHOOL governing body has taken the Western Cape Education Department and a circuit manager to court over corruption claims.

Northpine Primary School’s governing body is accusing the circuit manager of trying to circumvent the rule book so a retired principal gets furniture and a computer from the school.

The governing body said Lydia Beets, who left the school last December, claimed the furniture and equipment belonged to the school.

On Wednesday, the gov- erning body approached lawyers to apply for a court interdict against the department from handing over the equipment to Beets.

The Northpine Primary School governing body chairman, Giovanni Pasquallie, said Beets claimed to have donated the furniture and equipment to the school and now has demanded that it be handed over to her.

Pasquallie said he had communicated to her the process she had to go through in order for the governing body to determine whether she was entitled to what she claims.

Beets insisted the equip- ment and the furniture belonged to her but would not comment further.

“They can take me to court if they want to,” she said when told of the court action.

Pasquallie said the donation had not been recorded and the furniture was recorded as an asset belonging to the school.

He said he had tried to report the matter to both circuit manager Mark Mofoking and the department, but his attempts had been frustrated.

He then turned to the department’s forensic unit’s fraud line, which “is unobtainable”, according to a voicemail prompt. This has prompted the governing body to approach the courts.

“It’s about principle. We need to comply. We need to do things in such a manner so that they stand up to scrutiny. We cannot just simply say, ‘Okay, give this asset to so-and-so.’

“If these assets are registered to the school’s asset register, then they belong to the school,” Pasquallie said.

After explaining the process to Beets, Pasquallie said, the former principal had approached the circuit manager, who wrote a strongly worded email to the governing body, demanding the material be handed over to Beets.

Western Cape Education Department spokesperson Paddy Attwell said the governing body chairman had agreed to return the computer, but the chairman denied this, saying he had only “agreed that a due procedure be followed”.

“Our circuit manager intervened to ensure good relations between the parties concerned,” Attwell said.

However, Pasquallie stressed that governing bodies don’t take instructions from the department and that the department had no right in “acting arbitrarily” in the matter.