In a last-ditch attempt to root out the scourge of “ghost teachers”, the North West education department has again instructed teachers to fetch their June salaries in person from the nearest departmental office.
This is the second time North West has tried to use this method to clean up its payroll system.
Last year a similar move caused widespread disruption of schooling as many teachers had to travel considerable distances during school hours to collect their cheques, which were not always available.
The problem of fictitious teachers has plagued other education departments. In 2006 the Gauteng education department was fleeced to the tune of about R1-million by officials using fraudulent identity documents to create sham accounts into which they siphoned off their loot.
North West education sources said the provincial department was forced to embark on a head-counting exercise on the national treasury’s insistence. They said the treasury refused to entertain a request from the province to hike its budget allocation until the department purges bogus teachers from its payroll.
However, the department’s spokesperson, Charles Raseala, emphatically denied that the summons to teachers to collect their money in person was aimed at addressing the problem of ghost teachers.
Raseala said the move was designed to gather “fresh and clean data” essential for “training, planning and smooth decision-making processes”.
“If teacher data is not up to date, it’s difficult to make a case when you require money. We would have no basis to back up our request,” said Raseala. Teacher trade unions and education commentators have warned that the move could cause chaos and disrupt June examinations.
They also expressed doubts about the department’s ability to carry out such a demanding exercise, given its poor administrative capacity and the sheer size of a largely rural province.
Brian Setswambung, general secretary of South African Democratic Teachers’ Union in North West, complained that the provincial department had been underfunded by national government for five years because it had failed to resolve the issue of ghost teachers.
The current staff verification exercise would not succeed, as it was based on the model tried last year.
“Teachers were highly inconvenienced in that they had to travel to regional offices. Some did not receive their cheques in time, as a result of which their debit orders were left unpaid. I can assure you the same problems will occur this time around,” said Setswambung.
Raseala disputed this, saying that in the four districts in the province the department had identified 28 service points where teachers could fetch their cheques. Three days – June 17, 18 and 19 – had been set aside specifically for payments. In addition, the treasury had been roped in to ask the banks to clear cheques quickly.
A Democratic Alliance member of the North West provincial legislature, Herman Groenewald, said the problem of ghost teachers had plagued the province since 1992 and was particularly severe in rural areas. At one point the department suffered a shortfall of R6-billion.