​Rofhiwa Marubini 
Gauteng MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi has rejected misleading reports contained in the media  that he convened a "secret meeting" to discuss departmental tenders. 
This follows, the community meeting of May 2020 that was attended by MEC Lesufi, School Governing Bodies (SGB's), Learner Formations, Business Forums, School Principals and community formations such as CPF's. 
In a statement, Lesufi said he received an invitation from the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) and concerned citizens to address a community meeting after a school in Soshanguve went on for months without electricity. 
As part of his commitment to attend to the issues that were raised in the said meeting, the MEC  took attendees on a walk-about at the school to demonstrate the urgent need for the repairs to be done..  
"Why would a walk-about be arranged if the meeting was a secret. It was after this meeting that the electricity of the school was restored, and the repairs could proceed, "said Lesufi. 
Following the meeting, Lesufi instructed the GDE infrastructure team to respond to and perform assessments on the infrastructure and electricity complaints on behalf of the school.
His department then appointed a panel of contractors to perform electrical and other repair work at the school and that work was successfully completed.
MEC Lesufi said the allegation that this was a secret meeting is baseless and unfounded.
"It is unfortunate that the recording that is circulated was seriously manipulated and tampered with as it deliberately excludes the beginning of the said meeting where the purpose of the session was explained in detail, the manipulated voice clip only contains areas where the MEC was responding to questions that were raised by members of the community," he said.