Nice job if you do not have to do it
Cabal rumours as millions of rand paid to ill, suspended teachers
AS PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma praised exceptional teachers at the National Teaching Awards yesterday, a worrrying trend emerged: millions of rand were being paid to teachers not in the classroom.
The Kwazulu-natal Department of Education forked out more than R15 million last year for teachers who were on suspension with full pay, on sick or extended leave or absent without leave.
The department then had to spend money employing substitute teachers.
Education is getting the lion’s share of the Budget with R47.4 billion to be tabled in coming weeks.
Last year, the department had almost 1 000 teachers on long sick leave.
More than 30 officials were on precautionary suspension, costing more than R10m a year in salaries.
Some were awaiting responses about their medical boarding from Thandile Health Risk Management, a service provider which assists the government with managing absenteeism, sick leave and boarding.
Nearly 3 000 substitute teachers were processed last year.
Some of the teachers, especially those who were believed to be unlawfully suspended wanted to return to their jobs.
They said it was wrong for them to be getting paid while they were not doing work for the department.
Among them was Grade 12 economics teacher Leonard Ngcemu, who was still fighting against his suspension in 2015.
Ngcemu wants to be reinstated at Savannah High School, in Pinetown, claiming the department had failed to prove that he was guilty.
“The department has now employed delaying tactics. They want to frustrate me.
“I want to go back to work and do what has been my calling since I was born.
“They keep postponing the hearing,” he said.
Ngcemu last met the department officials in February but a date for the next hearing is still to be given to him.
He believed that there was a cabal within the department that was pulling the strings.
A suspended principal who spoke on condition of anonymity said she had exhausted all internal avenues in a bid to return to her job.
The high school principal has been receiving her pay for doing nothing since January last year.
“I don’t know what to do now. I have told the department to rather charge me and fire me than for me to get paid for doing nothing.
“I want to return to my job but the department has been delaying everything.
“They are doing this because they can’t prove my guilt. This is a deliberate ploy to get rid of me.” said the principal.
Nomarashiya Caluza, provincial secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, said, “We have been calling on the department to conclude cases timeously, including investigations. Having many teachers on precautionary suspension causes us to raise questions as to whether the department is not conducting a witch-hunt against some of these teachers.
“Why does it take more than a year to conclude investigations?
“You cannot suspend a person for more than 90 days, according to the Labour Relations Act.
Most of the time, the department in KZN is always acting in conflict with this provision,” she said.
National African Teachers Union deputy president Allen Thompson was scathing in his criticism of the department.“this has been going on for years but the department is passive. It is doing absolutely nothing, it is tight-lipped on the people who have been suspended, covering up for their sinister motives. “People who did nothing wrong are suspended and those crippling education are protected.”
Thompson warned that if the setbacks were not remedied, the education sector would crumble further.
He said it was untoward that some teachers were suspended for more than nine months without being charged.
“This is against the labour laws which clearly state that any investigation must be completed within three months.”
He said some teachers were victims of the selling-of-posts scandal.“some teachers are suspended so that a way could be paved for other teachers who are liked by the culprits.”
KZN was one of three provinces implicated in the jobs-forcash report.
MEC for Education Mthandeni Dlungwane has repeatedly said that he wanted to cure the department of the woes. Spokesperson for the department, Sihle Mlotshwa, said the department was auditing statistics.
It was agreed yesterday during a portfolio committee meeting that Thandile Health Risk Management should report the statistics to the department regarding absent teachers.