Suspended education department head Dr Naledi Mbude has resigned after reaching a secret settlement with provincial premier Oscar Mabuyane, probably amounting to millions of rand. Mbude, through no fault of her own, languished at home on suspension for more than a year on her full annual salary of R1.
The provincial education department has agreed to a court order under which it effectively conceded Selborne College’s right to expel two pupils involved in stabbing another pupil in the back. The victim needed stitches but survived. The court order brings to an end a 15-month battle between the school and the department over the expulsion of the teenagers, and sets aside the department’s 2021 refusal to approve the school’s decision to expel them.
Newly appointed Eastern Cape education department acting head Dr Soyisile Nuku is excited to be steering the department as it confronts a number of challenges.
Suspended head of the Eastern Cape education department Dr Naledi Mbude has been languishing at home for a year on her annual salary of R1.8m while the department is playing musical chairs with acting department heads and at least 31 acting senior managers. The department has acknowledged in an internal memorandum in possession of the Dispatch that this leadership vacuum and lack of continuity of service in senior management is having a “negative effect” on its performance.