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Image of a school bag containing stationery.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) in the Northern Cape says non-payment of money meant for stationery will have a negative impact on schools when they reopen next week.
The teacher’s union says the Department of Education failed to make payments to qualifying schools in May and in August last year.
“Our concerns do not only start now. In our last Provincial Executive Committee meeting in December, we called them to come and explain the delays and why are they not paying as the budget for 2023/2024 financial year covered that programme. But we didn’t get a satisfactory answer. That’s why we even called for an extra meeting with Treasury and the premier because the problem is bigger. It involves treasury and budget cut so we have been intervening,” explains Palesa Nqumashe, SADTU’s provincial secretary.
The provincial Department of Education says the delays were caused by budgetary constraints.
“The department acknowledges that we did experience a delay in the disbursement of norms and standard allocations due to budget constraints. We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused. Through our engagements and the support of premier and provincial treasury, we have secured a portion of the funds, which will be paid from today. These funds will be utilised to procure stationery, additional learning and support material, services to schools, learning aid for special schools and hostel subsidies,” says Geoffrey Van Der Merwe, spokesperson of the Northern Cape Department of Education.
Northern Cape | SADTU slams non-payment of relief funds:
