FREE STATE EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP WAS IRREGULAR

The Kagiso Shanduka Trust was awarded an irregular tender in the Free State for a rural education development and related infrastructure project that should have gone out for competitive bidding, leaving the provincial education department R500 million in the red.

The co-financing contract between the Kagiso Shanduka Trust and the Free State education department was intended to pilot an innovative model to address infrastructure development, curriculum support, social welfare and growing leadership in rural and township schools in the province. The trust is also associated with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

There was, however, no innovative element in the unsolicited bid by the partnership between the Kagiso Shanduka Trust and the Kagiso Shanduka Foundation that warranted a deviation from the procurement process, and other service providers could have easily provided