Lesufi may have used Nasi iSpani to garner votes: DA

The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Shadow MEC for Education, Sergio Isa Dos Santos, has raised concerns that the Premier Panyaza Lesufi may have used the Nasi iSpani programme to garner votes for the African National Congress (ANC) in the May polls.

This follows the termination of the 32 000 teaching assistants contracts which were issued under the programme.

Lesufi had initially announced that the contracts would run until 2025.

The contracts were terminated at the end of last month due to budget constraints.

Dos Santos says his party intends to refer the management of the programme and Lesufi to the office of the Public Protector for investigation.

He says, “The concern that we have is that for a very long time since the programme had been announced, we have been stating that this programme was not budgeted correctly. We raised concerns in terms of insufficient funding and we had even said that Premier Lesufi doesn’t have a plan after the elections. It has come to reality that the concerns have been proven correct.”- Reporting by Diteboho Ntimane.

PODCAST: Interview with Dos Santos on SA fm’s First Take Programme: