The Western Cape Education Department spent nearly R2 million in the process of removing former Heathfield High School principal Wesley Neumann. FILE
Cape Town - The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has spent nearly R2 million in the process of removing Heathfield High School’s former principal Wesley Neumann.
In a written reply to the ANC’s Khalid Sayed, MEC for Education David Maynier explained that the total expenditure spent by his department on the matter stood at R1.8m.
The expenditure is made up of the disciplinary hearing and the legal costs.
Three months ago, the department indicated that the costs associated with the matter were just a little over R700 000.
This latest figure is expected to grow as the department revealed to Weekend Argus they would challenge the recent decision by the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) commissioner to preside over his arbitration hearing.
Neumann’s struggle started in June 2020 when he got into trouble with the department for failing to reopen schools at the height of Covid-19 infections.
Sayed said the ANC was dismayed by the exorbitant cost of Neumann's disciplinary process.
“(The costs) are expected to rise as the WCED prepares to take the jurisdictional ruling on review,” he said.
He said the deployment of the law enforcement officials at Heathfield further increased the costs to taxpayers.
“It is mind-boggling to think that these officials were deployed to one school when there is a clear shortage of school resource officers at schools in gang-ravaged poor communities,” he said.
To bulk up teaching staff after Neumann was fired, the department allocated three additional teaching posts to the school for mathematics, mathematical literacy, and life orientation.
“The three additional posts were retained for the 2023 academic year and resulted in the creation of an extra departmental head and two post-level 1 educator posts,” Maynier said.
Sayed welcomed the allocation of three additional teaching posts at the school.
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