The newspaper points out how the redirection of the funds was revealed in the most recently published Government Gazette.
The R205 million was reportedly meant for construction, maintenance and other upgrades at schools. The money formed part of the R1.64 billion education infrastructure grant for the province for the 21/22 financial year.
The unspent R205 million has now been redirected to KwaZulu-Natal.
Making sure it doesn’t happen again
Eastern Cape Finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko has admitted that the failure to spend the money is pretty embarrassing. Mvoko told the provincial legislature that the wasted funds do not go together with efforts to improve education levels in the province.
The Eastern Cape has over 3 000 schools with inadequate sanitation. Over 1 000 schools still have the often-fatal pit toilets.
The Eastern Cape Government now says it is “devising measures” to make sure the wastage of over R200 million never happens again.
Too late, the money is already long gone. And even if it never ever happens again, just think how many schools could have been improved or even built, with R205 million.
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