The provincial Department of Education intends to ensure that all its unpaid teachers will have received their outstanding salaries by the end of the month.

About 200 teachers, whose contracts ended in April and which were extended until December, were not paid.

The department cited issues with their paperwork as the reason.

Last week, education said about 55 teachers had received their payments and it was processing payments for other educators.

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On Wednesday the department spokesman, Jasper Zwane said the payments to the teachers that had not been paid yet, was going well.

“So far, by August 22, the department will have effected payments to 85 per cent. The payment of contract teachers is going smoothly thanks to all who submitted the documents that have been outstanding.

We anticipate that by the end of August, the matter will be something that we only read about,” he said.

Zwane said the payments were delayed because some educators had not submitted all the required documents on time.

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A teacher from Gutjwa Primary in KaBokweni, who has been working for five months without pay, confirmed that his pay came in early Thursday morning.

After Lowvelder reported about unpaid teachers, he said the circuit manager in his area contacted him and promised that payment would be done by August 15.

“All my papers were complete and I had submitted all the required documents in April. The circuit manager has now honoured his promise and they paid me,” he said. This teacher is one of the 200 teachers who have not been paid.
Zwane said education appreciates the cooperation from the teachers, officials and organised labour.