A group of angry students enrolled in a government-sponsored learnership programme staged a protest outside Enterprise Ilembe on Monday regarding the non-payment of stipends they claim are due to them.

Enterprise Ilembe however said the situation was not within their control as they do not have the money to make payments without receiving funding from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF).

The students are part of a training programme spearheaded by the UIF and Compensation Fund (CF) at an estimated cost of R7.9 billion.

The programme was launched in Ballito on April 24, last year by Minister of Labour, Mildred Olifant and the Minister in the Presidency responsible for planning, monitoring and evaluation, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The CF and UIF, through its Labour Activation Programmes (LAP) unit, signed partnership agreements with about 32 state-owned training providers and institutions to train close to 160 000 students over a three-year period.

The aim was to enable youth to compete for jobs in the labour market.

Enterprise iLembe was granted charge of 1 100 students from the region who were enrolled in a 12-month learnership programme of theory and practical training from June 2019 with a R2 000 monthly stipend to cover transport and expenses.

The students claim they have not received their stipend since January and are demanding clarification from Enterprise Ilembe. They staged a similar protest in November last year after not receiving their stipend for two months.

Student representative Sipha Sphamandla said they were being ignored.

Sphamandla said they are also demanding the stipend for the additional weeks that were added by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the Covid-19 lockdown.

In March, higher education and training minster Blade Nzimande said skills development providers had to stop training activities, but would continue paying stipends during lockdown.

The students are claiming they are owed R10 000 for the period January to May.

Enterprise iLembe CEO Nathi Nkomzwayo said: “The programme was not funded through SETA and approval to pay stipends over lockdown needed to come from the Minister of Labour or direct from the Department of Labour (DoL).

“On June 3 we received communication from UIF stating that lockdown stipends had been approved and the entity was requested to send invoices to the UIF so they could process payment to Enterprise iLembe.

“The invoices were submitted on June 4 to UIF, however this money has not been paid or transferred into Enterprise iLembe’s account as yet. The stipends can only be paid to learners once this funding is received.”

“As Enterprise iLembe we remain committed to seeing the learners complete the training programme as it will ultimately assist them in obtaining skills that will allow them to enter the job market.”

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