After reading various articles about the textbook issue in Limpopo, I could not help but to write this letter.
1. I would not want to spend too much time on other matters relating to my performance and abilities. Other people are best placed to deal with those. But if I have to share what my own assessments about my abilities are, I have no doubt that indeed not only am I capable of fulfilling my responsibilities but with the current team in the National Department and in Provinces, we have been to steer well this ship in its troubled waters.
2. Because education is an important tool for societal development, and society takes keen interest in education, we treat it with the necessary respect and our utmost commitment, people who work closely with the department will testify to this fact.
3. The main point I want to respond to, relates to what seems to be the media’s opinion that I have lied about having removed Dr Anis Karodia from the Limpopo Education Department as the head of intervention. I repeat what I said in the media briefing, Dr Karodia is no longer head of the intervention team because of the instructions that I gave that he be removed. Dr Karodia did not leave Limpopo out of his free will.
4. In a meeting requested by him in Johannesburg to discuss the matter, after a long emotional meeting we agreed on the terms of his departure which included an amicable departing of ways. Whilst he insisted on certain terms for his peaceful speedy departure I accepted them because I wanted to avoid protracted labour disputes. All I needed at the time was to see him out of the Province and a new administrator appointed to replace him.
5. The assertion that Dr Karodia is the fall guy is not true. At the press briefing held in Limpopo last month, I accepted responsibility for the textbook problem, I did not need a fall guy. I actually explained that some of the problems that led to this situation, which in the main included the fact that the Province did not place book orders in 2011 for 2012 because they did not have the money.
A point confirmed by the MEC. This and many other factors including legal challenges with the existing contract, government procurements processes and the failure of the intervention team to put more pressure into ensuring that books were procured and sent to schools were amongst the reasons I mentioned. That I needed a fall guy is strange, I did not make him one and did not need him to be my fall guy.
6. Dear Editor, I repeat, Dr Karodia did not resign or leave Limpopo out of his own free will but I had given instructions that he should be removed as head of the intervention team. The letter sent by him to the different media houses was part of the settlement agreed with him to deal with the concerns he raised with me about his professional integrity.
The agreement about another deployment in the department was also part of managing the process because of the financial implications that his removal would have on him since he had been head hunted and was then made to suspend his consultancy business. Both the letter and redeployment were meant to help us both to part ways speedily and amicably.
7. I hold the Business day at high esteem as a respectable newspaper and at least expect them to verify their facts with the affected person especially if that person was to be made a subject of their editorial. It is unfortunate that your editorial confirms the depiction the City Press made of me - a petty pathetic liar desperate to save his own skin at the expense of others.
As mentioned earlier I would not say that I gave instructions that Dr Karodia be removed as head of the Limpopo intervention team when that was not true. At least I respect myself enough not to stoop that low. The person written about in the City Press cannot be the person I know myself to be. Thanks to my age, I am at a stage where there are very few things that I don’t know about myself, so the City Press and Karodia could not be more wrong about me and the stupid things I’m capable of.
8. I have never, even in the face of great difficulty and personal danger to myself and people close to me, used any as a shield to save myself, instead I have always tried to defend others. I have always endeavoured at all times to treat others with respect and empathy, I have always had the courage to accept and confront my shortcomings and take responsibility for the things I did or failed to do.
9. I find it unfortunate and disingenuous of Dr Karodia to use private correspondence where he is fully aware of the reasons behind it and what it was meant to achieve without telling the full story.
10. I am more than ready to apologise to him as he demands if he can use the same methods of headline grabbing to answer the following questions:
- Did he leave the Department of Limpopo voluntarily or was it upon my instructions to the Director-General that he be removed?
- Is he willing not only to send around the letter but also divulge truly and honestly our verbal communication with regards to his removal as head of the intervention team in Limpopo?
- If he would allow me to go public on the reasons I gave him for his removal, despite the fact that we had agreed with him not to, and explain why communication between us had to be cordial?
- Why the department is still paying him whilst he is not in the office and there is an acting head of the intervention team in his place?
11. I hope that Business day and other media houses will, in future, at least afford me an opportunity to state my case where my abilities and integrity are under question.
12. I guess that is not too much to ask.
