After a 2014 City Press investigation into the sale of teaching posts, Minister Angie Motshekga appointed a Ministerial Task Team chaired by Professor John Volmink. Its report, delivered in May 2016, is the only official finding on how the union that organises most of the country's teachers runs its employer. Of 81 cases examined, 38 showed wrongdoing or grounds for further investigation. Posts were sold — about R6,000 for a teaching post, R30,000 and more for a principalship — and also traded for sex and for livestock. The South African Democratic Teachers Union was found to be in de facto control of the education departments of six provinces; in the North West more than 85% of senior officials were former union office-bearers; every deputy director-general in the national department was a SADTU member. A "climate of fear" kept witnesses silent. The team recommended that cadre deployment in education end.
SADTU declared the report "lacks credibility" and said it was "definitely going to take legal action against the State". Thirty-eight cases were referred for further action; no prosecutions have been traced. The record is the evidentiary base for the archive's cadre-deployment and Limpopo ghost-teacher files.