300 EC teachers not paid yet this year

Nearly 300 teachers who received appointment letters earlier this year are still waiting for payment.

The Eastern Cape education department says it is still trying to process about 1000 appointments.

According to the department, they have not yet even filled all 1665 vacant teaching posts in the 23 districts earmarked to gain teachers.

While spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said only 66 appointment letters had not yet been issued, DA MPL for education Edmund van Vuuren said the figure given to him by teacher unions was closer to 183.

“It is shocking – and the department has been trying to keep it quiet for a while. The MEC said he will appoint 1665 teachers but he has not. Also, not all the teachers who have been appointed have been paid.”

Mtima said the department had set up a central processing centre in East London in an attempt to fast-track all teacher appointments made this year.

“The department was under pressure and then issued those letters of appointment on one condition, that those educators would provide all the things relating to their appointment such as the necessary documents and certified certificates.

“However there are still documents outstanding and payment cannot be processed until we have all the required documents.

“There are less than 300 teachers who still need to be processed in order to receive payment,” Mtima said.

He also said the department had not appointed the envisioned 1665 teachers due to late submissions from schools. “We have to work according to time frames and where appointments have not yet been made, it is because the schools were late in submitting their profiles to us.”

But Van Vuuren said: “I think money has been set aside for these appointments but it just boils down to incompetence. If you look at the Western Cape and Gauteng you will see that there are no excess teachers.

“Here we have 5478 teachers in excess and 3146 vacancies.

“Our department is too unionised and too political, and our children are the ones who continue to suffer.”

Van Vuuren said that in premier Phumulo Masualle’s state of the province address, he had said every school in the province should have a permanently appointed principal.

But although the department had advertised 381 principal posts, they had not yet been filled.

Mtima said the department had received applications and the process was in the selection phase.

“When selection is completed interviews will be conducted.

“You cannot take shortcuts in this process,” he said.