Amidst the payment chaos, the DA and the unions demanded immediate action to save the school nutrition program.
The Quazulu-Netal Education Department yesterday conducted an undertaking to pay the National School Nutrition Program (NSNP) service providers, which was placed by the DA to the department under administration for its “poor management” of the program amid threats.
While the department insisted that 78% of NSNP service providers have been paid so far, the contractors said that those who have been paid have not been paid.
NSNP Association representative Siboniso Xulu said that the government has shifted the financial burden for the program to run service providers to the program, despite setting different funds for the NSNP program.
Unpaid national school nutrition program contract
He said, “We have not been paid for the work done in March and April. We are forced to use our own money to maintain the feeding scheme because if we don’t, the children will remain hungry,” he said.
“As things are standing, some of us have not been paid one percent in the last two months, while those who have been paid have been paid half of them.”
South African Democratic Teachers Union Provincial Secretary Dolly Caluja said that the Sangh believes “the department has collapsed; it cannot do anything. As we speak, some grade R doctors have not been paid”.
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“The department is struggling to pay for service providers for school nutrition program, acting allowances are not paid to acting personnel and some officials cannot participate in important workshops.”
He said that grade R teachers have abolished their employment contracts by the department. The teachers were on the annual Akshaya contracts which ended at the end of March every year.
“This is not understood because the department always renews contracts.
Grade R teachers did not pay
“We do not understand why they remove them in the first place, so that the workers are not subject to the pain of not getting their salary,” Caluja said.
“These workers are also subjected to a salary that does not match the merit and experience they have.
“We have attached the employer to this and it promised the premiere office to ask for assistance in the review of the issue, but it appears that it was unsuccessful as there is no indication that these grade R teachers will get relief from this pain soon at any time.”
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DA’s Quazulu-Netal Education spokesperson and MPL Sakhil Mingdi said it is not an administrative hiccup, but is “duty and a comprehensive systemic failure” by Provincial Education Officers.