Upon reflecting on the above, the lingering questions in my mind are: was this resolve of the House implemented by the MoET and Public Service? If not, why are heads not rolling at the MoET? Who is failing to crack the whip thereat? It should be borne in mind that the issue of Knowledge Ngwenya has always been thorny with few officers fearing to burn their fingers in resolutely dealing with it. It is an open secret that in 2016, the erstwhile MoET Minister, Phineas Magagula, responding to questions from Senator Chief Ngome Ndlangamandla, intimated that the scandals around Ngwenya compelled him to report same to the AntiCorruption Commission [ACC] for investigations. This was after the discovery that Ngwenya did not even possess the relevant qualifications to be at the MoET as he forged his Form 5 Certificate.
On the 4th of May 2020, Bodwa Mbingo wrote a story entitled, ‘Knowledge Ngwenya in messy promotion scandal’ where he revealed that Ngwenya possess two [2] Form 5 certificates which reflect that he sat for the school leaving exam in the same year, but in different schools [St Marks and Londunduma].
It boils my blood that a plethora of teachers have endured the lethal wrath of the TSC in forging certificates, shown the exit door by same, in a tick. I recall that on the 8th of February 2011, two [2] female educators, one teaching at Nyambo and Mnjoli Primary, respectively were arrested for allegedly possessing fraudulent O’ Level [Form 5] certificates to the Teaching Service Commission [TSC] when seeking employment as primary school teachers. It is by sheer coincidence that the other female teacher was alleged to have uttered and put off a forged O’ Level Certificate to Knowledge Ngwenya of the TSC when applying for a teaching post. So severe were their charges that Senior Magistrate then, Siphosini Dlamini referred the two [2] to the High Court for bail applications. Little did the educator and Court know that the recipient himself was an imposter-an accident in waiting. The Times [07-11-2013], reported that a teacher was apprehended for defrauding government one million after she presented a forged certificate to the TSC.
Lo and behold, it gives me sleepless nights as to what makes the MoET to treat Knowledge Ngwenya with kid gloves? What is so special about him at the MoET which makes him a super employee? The Office of the Schools Manager, time and again, springs into immediate action to charge teachers for misconduct whenever they are called to show cause why they should not be suspended as contained by the skewed and obsolete Teaching Service Regulations of 1983; as if any response from a teacher has ever been satisfactory at the MoET. With no intent to ruffle Minister Lady-Howard’s feathers, the truth must be told that failing to deal with the Knowledge Ngwenya saga is an egg on her face. If the Minister’s memory is short, one would gladly stimulate it in that in 2019, a behind the scenes move took place at the MoET whilst she and the PS were away in SADC, on a National Duty. The incumbent charlatan, [Knowledge], was recommended for the position of Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer to the Civil Service Commission [CSC] without the nod of the substantive PS in the ministry as the Controlling Officer