School infrastructure money spent on aesthetics

An engineer in the Mpumalanga department of education has gone into hiding after receiving death threats for blowing the whistle after he discovered that R25.6 million had been spent on “aesthetic” work at six schools.

In a sworn statement, the department’s chief civil engineer, Mfanelo Mbanjwa, said contractors were supposed to fix infrastructural defects in 14 schools, but they mainly only tiled floors, painted walls and installed ceiling boards. They then charged exorbitant