Botho Molosankwe
A CLERGYMAN who allegedly defrauded the Gauteng Department of Education of millions of rand was caught in a Hawks sting yesterday.
The Hawks pounced on Boksburg pastor Josias Mabaso after he tried to bribe LeadSA’s Yusuf Abramjee not to say anything about the multimillion-rand corruption and fraud involving two schools that he had bragged about.
Mabaso’s two schools are both named Ekukhanyeni Combined – one is in the Ramaphosa informal settlement and the other in Denver.
The private school franchise received more than R20 million in subsidies from the government this year, but little of the money seems to have trickled down to the schools.
Abramjee – Primedia’s head of corporate affairs and communications – said he was shocked to see the Ramaphosa school, which had got more than R5m in November, dilapidated when LeadSA visited it, intending to assist with its feeding scheme.
The school had no textbooks and no sports field, yet Gauteng Education MEC Barbara Creecy confirmed the authorities had given the school R5.6m.
Many desks were broken and the teachers were getting very low salaries – or none at all – while the children were not receiving food at school.
When confronted, Mabaso offered to buy Abramjee’s silence for R1.2m and said they could split the money.
The R50 000 he carried in five neat bundles into a Sandton eatery yesterday was the first tranche of the money.
But Abramjee had informed the Hawks, and they were ready to bust the pastor.
During their conversation at the eatery, which Abramjee recorded secretly, the pastor says the department does send inspectors to the school, but they don’t ask questions.
Mabaso, who represents the Scandinavian Baptist Church, tells his “partner in crime” that he does not know how much money he is taking from the school funds, but that it is not more than R100 000 a month.
He admits to not having auditors and asks Abramjee to help provide fake receipts to pretend this was for expenses.
He also asks Abramjee to get more donors to provide material for construction work for school buildings.
“When we get it (material), we will say the school bought it. But we will know it’s from donors,” he says.
Abramjee asks the pastor why he is not feeding the children even though he gets money. The clergyman responds: “Where can I get the food? I’m helping them. They don’t pay school fees, but their mothers don’t want to come and clean the school.”
The Primedia executive later said: “We could not sit back and watch our children being robbed of their education.”
Gauteng Department of Education spokesman Charles Phahlane said the two schools were independent and authorities were going to order a forensic probe into their finances.