Unpaid ECD staff protest at education offices
The group demanded answers as to why salaries and funding were not paid.
Over 200 Early Childhood Development (ECD) founders, staff, and teachers marched to the Port Shepstone Department of Education‘s (DoE) district office demanding answers as to why salaries and funding had not been paid.
This comes after responsibility for ECD was taken over from the Department of Social Development (DSD) by the education department in April.
Since the move, ECD staff has raised a number of concerns over pay dates of subsidies, salaries and actual figures as to how much the department will be paying for each child.
Speaking to the South Coast Herald on Monday this week, one of the founders of Gamalakhe Early Childhood Development Centre, Minehle Shange said they are tired of being pushed from pillar to post by department officials.
“The last time we received any funding was in April or May. When we question why, we are told that the Basic Accounting System (BAS) is not working. We do not even know what that is,” said Shange.
The BAS system was developed in 1992 to cater for government’s basic accounting needs.
She said the ECD staff or beneficiaries are aware that when the crossover or merger happened, budget allocated for the ECDs by DSD was carried over to DoE, however, they do not understand the reason for the holdup.
“The money is there, why are we not getting paid,” Shange questioned.
The workers also demanded that DoE finance department managers meet with them in person to address them, instead of sending junior staff to explain.
“Some of us used to get just over R11 000 and now we get a lousy R6 000 which was a once-off payment and did not cover all our expenses, just the food cost to feed the children,” Shange added.
An official came out to meet the crowd outside the gates, introducing himself as Mr Nkala.
He said he acknowledged the fact that the workers had not been paid, however, there were issues with the BAS.
“No one will be happy that they are not getting their salaries, in fact I understand that families are hungry if salaries are not paid,” Nkala added.
He said he would be going back to the finance department to find out the problem.
After entering the office Nkala came back and asked for five representatives from the group of protesters to represent the ECD workers in a meeting with the finance department and the district manager, Mfundi Sibiya.
According to Shange, Sibiya acknowledged their concerns, however, said that the funds and payments are not handled by the district office, but by the provincial department in Pietermaritzburg.
“He said that a list of all the ECDs affected should be compiled with all their grievances so that it is forwarded to the provincial office. We therefore decided that we give them 14 days, starting on Monday, August 8 to resolve the matter, if not we will march to the district office again.”
The district manager, Mfundi Sibiya was contacted for comment, however none was received at the time of going to print.
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