The school has since closed its doors of learning after financial trouble beset the Ad Laudem Independent School near the Universitas Academic Hospital.

According to the Free State Department of Education spokesperson, Howard Ndaba, the school seized to exist and school pupils will be transferred to at least two local schools in Bloemfontein.

He says they have since met and discussed the transfer of the pupils to these two schools after Ad Laudem ran into financial difficulties. Ndaba recently told OFM News that the department had made several attempts to meet with the school management in 2022 but all efforts were in vain.

Ndaba confirms that the school did receive a government subsidy to help it run its school affairs.

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The school's management has been accused of maladministration, which led to the school failing to honour its payment to workers.

The school's management, including the owner, co-founder, head of finance and Human Resources (HR), were all related and have been accused of taking fat cheques home whilst teachers or staff were being paid R400, R800 or a R1000 in monthly instalments.

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A source in the upper echelons reveals that thousands of rands were paid for personal rent, amongst others.

It was also further alleged by disgruntled teachers in 2022 to OFM News, that the school's management was planning an escape to the Western Cape to reopen another school.

In December 2022, the school was busy paying the November salaries, whilst December's were still outstanding.

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But co-owner and founder, Lizette Roets, and its Head of Finance, Johan Roets, denied all the allegations.

In an interview with OFM News in 2022, Lizette said the 7-year-old school had tried every possible way to sort out its financial issues, but it is still reeling from the effects of Covid-19.

In a detailed interview, she mentioned how she had fought for her staff to avoid laying them off.

"We had issues with parents not paying, they used Covid-19 as an excuse and we had to make other plans. We sold our personal vehicles and that money went to the school. We sold the school bus to get money to pay salaries," she said

"We reduced our own salaries, we told the auditor that we don’t want to be paid a salary anymore. We have always consulted our staff and kept them up to date. We have minutes of the meetings to prove that. We have always been transparent and kept them in the loop."

The school's head of finance, Johan Roets, told OFM News that the recent issues were due to disgruntled employees who were fired for various offences. He explains that the school suffered financial problems. He says it is owed almost R3 million by both active and inactive parents.

The debt of parents who have since left the school runs into "millions of rands", while active parents owe the school over a million rand.

Also during that interview, he revealed that they had a R500 000 garnishee order from the South African Revenue Services (SARS). He said at some point the school tried to change its income model, but this caused a deficit of over a million rand.

Parents were requested not to pay in advance as per the norm and with an agreement from the school, and this meant the school lost over a million rand.

Johan also recently denied that they were planning an escape to the Western Cape province and said it was only a project but it has since failed.

The school has a matter awaiting in the Free State High Court. It's said that a local businesswoman, known to OFM News, invested money in the school but money later on, went missing. The businesswoman approached the court to seek an order to have the books of the school audited and checked. She since said that a judgment into the matter was reserved.

A source told OFM News that they have also approached the Free State Hawks with the intention to have the troubled school investigate following the alleged financial misconduct.

This source would further reveal that the management operated with an iron fist and anyone who had an opposing view with them would suffer the consequences of either being suspended or fired. This source revealed that, in fact, this was the case late in 2022 when one of the teachers was fired by the school.

But in defence of the school, Johan said the teacher was fired because he disobeyed direct orders by his superiors. He said the teacher did not do his job as required.

"The employee was insulting and he was notified about the disciplinary inquiry for not following the instructions of his head of department and that is the reason why he was dismissed," Johan added.

OFM News has since sent questions to school management for further clarification on several issues. They must yet respond.

OFM News