- Basic Education DG Mathanzima Mweli said the investigation into the Foundation Phase national catalogue would not nullify the entire process.
- The catalogue remains on hold while independent investigators, the department’s internal audit division, and the Auditor-General conduct parallel investigations.
- Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube’s spokesperson said she would not pre-empt the findings or recommendations of the independent investigation.
While an independent probe into the controversial national catalogue for Grade 1-3 pupils is still under way, the Department of Basic Education’s director-general, Mathanzima Mweli, says there is no way that an investigation can nullify the entire process.
He, however, told representatives from publishers’ associations at a meeting that he expected the investigation “to say there are some areas where you need to tie up loose ends”.
The department’s National Catalogue Task Team, comprising senior officials, provided stakeholders in the educational publishing industry with an update on the development and release of the Foundation Phase national catalogue on Monday.
Mweli told News24 on Thursday night that its information “is completely wrong”. News24 subsequently forwarded him the comments he made at the meeting and asked him whether they were “completely wrong”.
On Sunday, Mweli stated in a WhatsApp response to News24 that he did not want to waste his time with journalists and media houses “who do their business on lies and sleaze”.
“I have very important work to do for the nation,” he added.
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News24 understands that a senior department official forwarded a copy of the media enquiry it received from News24 on Thursday to some of the publishers, who expressed concerns that trust was being breached.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube’s spokesperson, Lukhanyo Vangqa, said she would not pre-empt the findings or recommendations of the independent investigation.
“The purpose of appointing an independent external law firm is precisely to ensure that the relevant legal, governance, procurement and public finance issues are properly tested before any conclusive position is taken.
“The minister’s position is that the matter should neither be prejudged as irregular nor treated as closed before the relevant processes, records, approvals and legal basis have been properly considered.”
Gwarube announced on 26 May that her department would launch an independent external investigation into the catalogue process following a National Treasury investigation deemed “inconclusive”.
Gwarube’s request to Treasury to investigate possible irregularities in the procurement process came after News24 reported in April that publishing company Lighthouse Publishers, registered three days after the contract specifications were issued, was awarded 26% of the total approvals for publishing learning materials for Grade 1 to 3 pupils.
A total of 6 385 titles submitted by 19 publishers were approved for inclusion in the catalogue.
The titles approved by the department included Lighthouse Publishers (1 707), Oxford University Press (1 274), Marang Publishers (566), Macmillan Education (513), Maskew Miller Learning (471) and Shuter & Shooter Publishers (457).
News24 is owned by Media24, a subsidiary of Naspers, which also owns Via Afrika, a textbook publisher that received approval to publish nine titles in the department’s catalogue.
The selected books listed in the new catalogue will replace the existing textbooks and materials distributed to Grade 1 to 3 pupils since 2012.
Mweli told those attending Monday’s meeting that he anticipated that by the end of July, “this must be behind us”.
“I must also say, having shared this presentation that we have shared with you, if indeed we have followed what we shared with you, and there’s no reason for me to doubt because I was part of that process, there is no way that the investigation can nullify the entire process,” he said.
But I do expect the investigation to say there are some areas where you need to tie up loose ends.
Mweli alluded to remarks made to him by the former chairperson of Umalusi, Professor Yunus Ballim, that nothing was “failure-proof”.
“I think that is what we tried to do, even with the catalogue process. We tried our best to make sure that when the unforeseen happens, the process must still be secured, and I am quite confident that even looking back after these investigations, the process will still be secured.”
He told stakeholders that Monday’s meeting was a “special meeting given what has happened in the last few months around the development and release of the national catalogue”.
“We deemed it extremely crucial to try and keep stakeholders within the value chain in the loop. I must apologise that when developments unfolded, we did not call a meeting with you, who is one of the affected roleplayers,” Mweli said.
Responding to a question about when the investigation was expected to conclude, a department official said they wished to see the investigation finalised as quickly as possible.
“The matter we are trying to avoid as a sector is to put pressure on the investigators only to come to a point where the investigating team does sub-standard work because they were put under pressure.”
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According to the department’s slide presentation, an independent company had been appointed to review the catalogue development and approval process.
“Parallel reviews are being undertaken by [the department’s] internal audit and the Auditor-General of South Africa.”
The slide presentation indicated that the terms of reference for the investigators were “initially developed for the investigation of the matter around Lighthouse Publishers”.
“Post the process, the minister provided details of what the terms of reference should cover, resulting in the revision of the terms of reference and expansion of the scope of the investigation.”
According to the presentation, the chairpersons of the audit and risk committees, who were independent and not department officials, were overseeing the investigation “while the DG and DBE officials take the backseat”.
The presentation also mentioned that the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education informed the department that it had requested the Public Protector to investigate the process and that the Public Protector had acknowledged receipt of the request.
The meeting was informed that the catalogue “remains on hold, waiting for the outcome of investigations”.
“The department will engage stakeholders on the outcomes to ensure transparency and alignment. Provinces have been guided to continue textbook top-ups [annual replacements to maintain stock due to losses] for Grades R and Grades 4-12 to ensure learning continuity.”
An educational publishing insider said he was told that the most significant takeaway from the meeting was Mweli’s statement that he does not anticipate the investigation overturning the catalogue but rather identifying areas for improvement.
That raises an important question: if the investigation identifies material flaws that affected outcomes, will those flaws result in changes to the current catalogue, or merely recommendations for future processes?
He was informed that there was a degree of confidence among senior officials that the ongoing investigation would ultimately validate the catalogue process.
“This sits somewhat uneasily alongside repeated assurances that the investigation is independent and that the department is taking a hands-off approach.”
He was told that the department emphasised at the meeting that the process was not a tender.
“However, critics are not arguing that it was formally a tender. The concern is that the process increasingly operated like a competitive procurement exercise, with price playing a decisive role, without the transparency safeguards normally associated with such processes.”
He was informed that the department did not adequately explain why the catalogue was reduced from eight approved titles to three, and why the evaluation methodology and scoring tools were not disclosed up front.
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Meanwhile, Vangqa said Gwarube’s position remained that the investigation must be allowed to run its course independently and that any conclusions must be based on evidence, the applicable law, and the investigator’s findings.
He added that Gwarube would have preferred that the investigation be concluded as urgently as possible, “given the importance of timely procurement and delivery of learning and teaching support materials for the 2027 school year”.
“However, she accepts that the investigation must also be thorough, credible and legally defensible. The current expectation is that the process is likely to be concluded in July 2026.”
Vangqa said Gwarube requested that the scope of the investigation be sufficiently broad to address the full range of legal, governance, procurement, public finance, and implementation issues arising from the Foundation Phase National Catalogue process.
He added that the terms of reference were not being shared publicly at this stage while the investigation was under way.
“The minister’s priority is to protect the independence and integrity of the investigation, while ensuring that the process is sufficiently comprehensive to command public, parliamentary, audit and legal confidence.”
Vangqa said Gwarube had been clear that the investigation must not result in avoidable delays that prejudiced pupils.
Contingency measures under consideration include lawful interim options, including topping up from existing approved catalogues where schools require replacement materials, while the relevant probity processes are being finalised.
He added that she had requested a full update on the department’s internal audit process, including when the final internal audit report and the department’s response to it would be available.
Vangqa said Gwarube’s approach was guided by two imperatives: that the integrity of the catalogue process must be properly tested, and that pupils must not be prejudiced.
“Where there are legal, governance, procurement or financial management concerns, they must be addressed lawfully and transparently.
“The minister has asked the department to provide a clear plan to ensure the timely procurement and delivery of quality Foundation Phase learning materials for the 2027 school year.”
The department’s acting spokesperson, Terence Khala, said they could not engage publicly on matters currently under investigation.
“In keeping with the principles of due process, administrative fairness and the integrity of investigative processes, it would be inappropriate to provide commentary while these matters remain under consideration,” he added.
