According to the DA, the Eastern Cape Department of Education has set aside almost a billion rand to cover the potential costs of leasing 55,000 tablets from the Iqbal Survé-linked Sizwe Africa IT Group.

The Eastern Cape Department of Education, which is struggling to provide textbooks and stationery to more than 3,000 schools, has set aside close to a billion rand to cover the potential costs of a lease agreement with Sizwe Africa IT Group to supply 55,000 computer tablets to matric students.

The tablets have been gathering dust since the beginning of last year after the three-year lease contract was met with outrage. Sizwe Africa IT Group is owned by the controversial businessman Iqbal Survé's AYO Technology Solutions.

In October 2020, in a case brought by the State Information Technology Agency (Sita), which alleged that the contract was unlawful and needed to have been processed through it in terms of the Sita Act, the department was interdicted from continuing with the controversial R500-million contract to supply the tablets to matric learners pending the hearing of an urgent review application.

The department, using Treasury regulations, participated in an existing lease contract between the Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and...