LEBOGANG SEALE
A COOL R230 000. That is what the historical Morris Isaacson High School paid for surveillance cameras that were not installed.
All this, while the school is busy paying R150 000 a year for a lease on existing CCTV cameras that do not function.
Payment for the cameras that were not delivered was made to John Mathye, a former agent of Canon Trading, a company that holds a franchise with digital company Canon.
In 2007, while working for Canon Trading, Mathye had successfully negotiated a deal that saw the company install 46 cameras at the school.
It was not clear how much it had cost the school to install the cameras, but the institution spends R12 376 a month on maintenance fees to Canon Trading, even though the cameras do not function.
It was for this reason, sources say, that Mathye approached the school in September last year again and promised to install extra cameras. He pledged to maintain the cameras free of charge.
Some school governing body (SGB) members have now come down hard on principal Elias Mashile for paying the money, despite no cameras being installed.
“How can you pay somebody that lot of money before he renders any service? It’s ridiculous and irresponsible,” said one governing body member, who asked not to be named.
More disturbing, members said, was that Mashile had not opened a case of fraud with the police.
According to the minutes of a SGB meeting that The Star has seen, a suggestion to open a case with the police was turned down in favour of a proposal to approach the Gauteng Education Department’s district office.
Canon Trading director Sharon Garvie confirmed that the school had paid R230 000 to Mathye. She said Mathye had no longer been an employee of the company when the deal was struck.
“He left to start his own company. He then went back to Morris Isaacson and Mashile gave him a cheque of R230 000 in his name. The cameras were never installed,” Garvie said.
She said the school had been aware that Mathye was no longer working for Canon Trading when he approached them. Garvie admitted that the existing cameras at the school were not functioning, but said attempts to upgrade them had been shot down by Mashile.
“We tried to solve the problem by upgrading the cameras, which would have saved them R5 000 on their monthly account. But Mashile told us to stay out of it and said Mathye would help them,” Garvie said.
Mathye also admitted that he had received R230 000 from the school, but insisted that the payment was for some extra cameras installed in 2009.
“I installed some 24 cameras when they built a hall. I haven’t done anything wrong,” he said.
But this was disputed by Mashile, who insisted that Mathye had not fulfilled his promise, despite receiving cash from the school.
Asked why he had not opened a case with the police, Mashile said: “We are busy trying to solve the matter.”
He said that the school was considering taking legal action against Mathye. He declined to comment further.
But some SGB members were far from pleased with Mashile’s decision to pay for the cameras before they had been installed.
“We suspect the principal could have been party to this deal. How can an educated man like him pay that sort of money before any cameras could be installed?” a member asked.
The Star recently published a story of how Mashile had repeatedly rebuffed efforts to publish pictures of thieves who had been caught on camera stealing more than 20 computers at the school.
SGB members and security guards at the school at the time accused Mashile of not doing anything to follow up on the case.
Education spokesman Charles Phahlane said yesterday that the department would launch a forensic investigation into the R230 000 payment to decide on what course of action to take.