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A 31-year-old junior clerk in the Eastern Cape Department of Education was arrested by the Joint Anti-Corruption Task Team for allegedly defrauding the department of more than R37 000. He had fraudulently deposited the monthly salary of a retired teacher into a bank account. The Director of communication mentions that his suspension illustrates the department's commitment to eradicating all forms of corruption and running a clean administration.

The Gauteng Education Department dismissed five officials accused of theft, fraud and corruption. A senior departmental manager was fired for allegedly violating tendering and procurement processes and financial mismanagement. The department suspended a further three officials earlier this year after it was alerted of their alleged illegal practices in awarding tenders, mismanagement and not complying with policies that govern procurement.

An exam scandal has forced the provincial agriculture department to withhold bursaries. The irregularities have affected 38 schools and at least 2,000 exam papers.

An official in the Ministry of Higher Education, who was apprehended on suspicion of theft from a government safe, is still in police custody, while investigations involving about N$98,300, which disappeared from a government safe, could reveal other suspects.

Twenty-two teachers are involved in a multimillion-rand fraud. Provincial education department officials have taken advantage of an offer of amnesty in return for information on the ringleaders. All the teachers would face criminal charges as the amnesty was only for the departmental disciplinary process.

South Africa's Finance Minister has advocated an aid transparency initiative focused on monitoring aid flow and how the aid is managed. He underlined the importance that the huge volumes of aid that flows into Africa are adequately monitored and tracked. The minister welcomed the support of Sweden to help return monies stashed in European banks.

The firing of a teacher who helped expose the cheating in last year's matric exams shows that whistle-blowers' rights are badly protected. This despite the promise from the Education Minister to protect those who exposed the cheating. Seven months after the fraud in the Mpumalanga matric exams, the only person who has been penalised is one of the whistle-blowers.