Terry Volkwyn
When we launched the LeadSA initiative just more than a year ago, we sincerely believed that this country was worthy of much more, that its citizens deserved better.
We were clear in our minds that we wanted to achieve a better South Africa for all its people. To do this, we called on each and every South African to take a stand and do the right thing.
Our journey has seen us take a stand on a range of issues as LeadSA. We called on South Africans to help out at hospitals and schools during the public service strikes.
We profiled people doing good in their communities and publicised their actions. We celebrated good leadership where we witnessed it. We persisted in our attempts to make our roads safer.
We spoke out against the infringement of others’ rights. And we went into vulnerable communities to find ways of assisting them with anything from food to blankets.
It is as we make our foray into the various layers of South African life that we are confronted by a South Africa that is rife with ills such as crime and corruption, poverty and unemployment, irresponsible leadership and personal enrichment.
Recently, I was afforded an opportunity, in my capacity as head of LeadSA, tdo visit a private school in an informal settlement in Ekurhuleni, with the view to helping the children with a feeding scheme.
What I discovered at that school was a horror I will remember for a long time
: children without food and in ragged clothes.
Even the retired teachers who help the children sometimes have to go without pay.
The school building itself was in serious disrepair.
As my heart broke for this school, this community, our country, I was devising means to call on everyone I know to help out in whatever way they could.
To my dismay, we found that the school has been receiving a government subsidy of about R5 million a year for three years.
And clearly, the full subsidy from the provincial Education Department was not being used to teach or feed these children.
The “owner” of the school has admitted, in a taped conversation, to pocketing some of these funds. Very little of it goes towards the school. He drives the latest luxury car and lives in an upmarket home, while the poor children suffer – he buys a measly 10 to 15 loaves of bread a day to feed 250 pupils.
Even more horrifying is the fact that this person purports to be a man of the cloth. And he uses religion to hide his evil ways.
I am angry… I am furious… I am disgusted. The reverend’s blatant attempt to bribe my colleague Yusuf Abramjee into quashing this story is beyond belief. The time has come to clean up the mess.
There are indications that the abuse of state money is widespread. I call on the minister of basic education and provincial MECs to immediately order a full audit of how money allocated to private schools is being spent.
Authorities must wake up. We are sick and tired of promises to fight corruption… we need action. Our duty is to take a stand and disclose these ills.
When charlatans are masquerading as saviours of the poor, we need to call them out.
When business people are robbing the government blind, we have a duty to expose them.
When our appointed leaders will not do what’s right, we must call them to account.
Answer our call, please. Stand up. Do the right thing.
l LeadSA’s Terry Volkwyn is CEO of Primedia Broadcasting