About 1 200 teachers and support staff went without their salaries at the end of April, the Gauteng education department said on Wednesday.
Newly appointed provincial minister of education Barbara Creecy, in a statement, assured all the affected staff that she would give the matter her ”personal attention” until all staff was paid.
The department attributed the mistake to schools failing to extend the contracts of temporary staff. Newly appointed staff were also not entered into the central salary database, which resulted in them not being paid.
The staff who were not paid were on temporary contracts or were newly appointed.
The salaries of 1 060 staff will be processed on Wednesday night, with the money expected to be in their bank accounts on May 18.
”’On behalf of the department I would like to extend my personal apologies to each and every staff member who has experienced this problem,” Creecy said.
”It is therefore incumbent on us as a department that we ensure that basic administrative procedures, such as the timeous payment of staff members, take place.”
A further 140 staff members’ details were incorrect on the department’s system and was being remedied on a case by case basis.
”At present 150 school liaison officers are phoning every school in the province to make sure no one else has slipped through the system.”
Creecy has instructed the department to review the documentation flow from school to head office level to make sure information was received and processed timeously. — Sapa