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Document showing corruption.
Mpumalanga Premier, Mandla Ndlovu, says the provincial Department of Education did not follow the correct procurement process when it bought 22 laptops. He says the devices that allegedly cost over R2 million were also of poor quality.
Ndlovu says the money spent on the laptops will be recovered from the service providers that allegedly connived with departmental officials to inflate the cost.
The implicated officials will face disciplinary action.
Ndlovu was briefing the media on the outcome of a probe into the controversial purchase of the laptops.
Ndlovu outlined the investigation report of the procurement of 22 laptops at the Mpumalanga education department. He stated that the procurement process was flawed and eight officials are involved amongst them the Head of the Department Lucy Moyane.
Ndlovu says internal disciplinary measures will be instituted against those officials.
“Officials of the department misrepresented that the correct goods were delivered, that was not the case. We are going to institute disciplinary actions against all the implicated officials including the HOD,” says Ndlovu.
According to the investigations, the laptops delivered were not what was procured.
The Premier of Mpumalanga said he was first alerted by a whistleblower on this matter, as early as the 15th of February 2025.
“The supplier misrepresented to the department that supplied the goods as per the award when it knew that the laptops supplied were not in accordance with the specification. Officials of the department misrepresented that a correct and proper procurement process was followed,” says Ndlovu.
Opposition parties have mixed reactions on the outcome of the investigations.
The official opposition uMkhonto Wesizwe’s Benjamin Nxumalo, says, “As MKP, we are not happy that the premier prematurely gave the report which lacks a lot of matters in the report. That said, there is another report coming … so, we do not take what he said as serious as it is, but we will wait for the continuation of this report. We don’t know how many report are going to be there.”
Meanwhile, the EFF has welcomed Premier Ndlovu ‘s findings.
EFF’s Ntsako Mkhabele, says, “We welcome the investigation that was given by the premier today. This is making us very much happy because this was raised by the EFF and the report concerns exactly like that there is corruption that happened in the Department of Education.”
Ndlovu says lifestyle audit will be conducted on all officials of the department implicated in the report.
