One of Parliament's most senior and well-paid officials is accused of awarding himself a bursary for tertiary study while denying bursaries to more junior staff, reported two newspapers.
Secretary to Parliament Gengezi Mgidlana, who earns R2.8-million a year, got more than R30 000 to study for the year while juniors were rejected, according to reports by the City Press and the Sunday Times.
City Press said that Mgidlana's name wasn't on the 2017 list of applicants for bursaries, but Parliament confirmed it had been paying his study costs since 2014. Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo told the newspaper that Mgidlana had been studying towards a Masters degree in business leadership when he was hired, so the institution took over payment of the fees.
Most of Parliament's annual bursary spending goes to the institution's new chief technology officer, Unathi Mtya, who is studying through Columbia University in the U.S. said City Press. The Sunday Times said the value of this bursary was R1.1-million.
The Sunday Times said that Mtya was supposed to have a similar qualification when she was hired. The newspaper said that Parliament had turned down study applications from staff for degrees costing about R20 000 a year, saying it didn't have the money.
Mothapo told the Sunday Times that only 50 staff members were awarded bursaries, and Mgidlana and Mtya were the only senior managers to get such funding.
One disgruntled official who lost out told the Sunday Times: "That R1-million going to one person would have accommodated a lot of staff. How do you deny workers and prioritise the top guys?"