Four Eastern Cape Department of Education officials and a businessman are facing charges of corruption, fraud, theft, and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act for R59 million meant for schoolbooks. Under the pretence that schools were adequately resourced with textbooks, they decided without permission from the National Treasury to shift and use 80% of the budget for the procurement of supplementary resource material, mainly IT equipment and photocopiers.

As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, a project to use ZAR866 million (US$60 million) to build a state-of-the-art technical and vocational education and training college in one of South Africa’s poorest townships could not proceed. The project was stopped by the Minister of Higher Education, but the money has not been returned to the National Treasury or accounted for in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act regulations.

A former Executive secretary of the Lagos State Scholarship Board has been charged with 8 counts of criminal conversion of N127 million belonging to the scholarship board. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s report revealed that the funds meant for students’ scholarship payments, staff welfare and office renovation had been used for personal purposes.