Parliament’s Basic Education Portfolio Committee will on Friday attempt to plot the “collective way forward” following the damaging “Jobs for Cash” report.

The Democratic Alliance (DA)‚ which had been vocal during the many delays in the report’s release‚ said on Tuesday that committee chairperson Nomalungelo Gina wrote to the party “notifying us that the report will be discussed this Friday”.

This was a prompt response to the DA’s letter on Monday which asked for the report to be tabled in Parliament‚ and for the leadership of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) leadership “to account for its role in the selling of teaching posts”.

The DA’s Gavin Davis said he hoped Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga “will make herself available for the meeting”.

If so‚ the DA intended asking her whether:

- She has reported the evidence of criminal activities carried out by Sadtu members to the police for further action;

- She has requested the Minister of Police to dedicate resources to this investigation to ensure its expeditious resolution; and

- She has taken steps to free the six provinces captured by Sadtu from the clutches of the union?

On summoning Sadtu’s leaders to appear before the committee‚ Gina apparently “agreed that it is necessary…but did not commit to a time and date”.

“There are signs that Motshekga and her fellow African National Congress members on the portfolio committee are ready to take on their alliance partner Sadtu. This is good news. It means we are moving closer to breaking Sadtu’s stranglehold on our education system and putting our nation’s children first‚” said Davis.

— TMG Digital