A claim that the Eastern Cape Department of Education’s (DoE) contract with Sizwe Africa IT Group was being used to siphon money from the department, rocked Friday’s final session of an urgent application in the Eastern Cape High Court (Bhisho) to halt the R600m rental contract.

According to a Daily Dispatch report, the court heard that the department had made questionable payments of up to R200m to Sizwe within a month of sealing a R15m-a-month rental contract for e-learning tablets for matriculants.

Advocate Rafik Bhana SC, for the State Information Technology Agency, bluntly stated: ‘Somebody is using the contract to siphon money off from the department.’

Bhana highlighted DoE documents reflecting vast payments to Sizwe which, he said, could not be explained in terms of the monthly rental of tablets. He highlighted how, in an order submitted to Sizwe less than a month after the rental contract had started to run, DoE ordered eight tablets at a cost of R15.46m each, for a total amount of R123.7m.

‘In all that you’ve heard, nobody is prepared to tell this court if this R123m has been paid, when it was paid and how it was paid, and how they arrived at that amount.’

In another document, a payment was processed for 12 ‘connector packs’ at a cost of R4.05m for a total cost of R49m.

He said amounts were being disbursed which had no relation to the rental agreement.

Reinard Michau SC, for Sizwe, argued that Bhana had raised ‘a bunch of new arguments’ based on documents which had not been explained.

‘I feel compromised,’ he said.

Advocate Richard Quinn SC, for the DoE, said the respondents should have been alerted to the purpose for which the DoE documents – attached to Sita’s founding papers in the application – would be used.

According to the report, Judge Buyiswa Majiki reserved judgment.

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