KZN Education Department gets a much-needed bailout

THE KWAZULU-Natal Department of Education has received an R800 million bailout from the provincial government following concerns that it was running out of money and may fail to meet its mandate to deliver quality education to millions of pupils across the province.

This week the department revealed that it was running out of money and could fail to meet some of its obligations, including the provision of substitute teachers if the main teacher was ill or on maternity leave. This emerged when Finance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube tabled the Third Adjustments Appropriation Bill yesterday that will see more funds allocated to the department.

It was allocated R790m, R420m was taken from other departments and R370m was sourced internally from other education functions.

The bill received support from all political parties.

However, they warned that the money should be used wisely and for its intended purpose.

Dube-Ncube said they had noticed financial pressures within the department for a number of months. She said that while the department was ordered to come up with a turnaround plan, it soon became clear it was finding it difficult to remain within budget.

She said that when assessing the situation, it emerged that part of the pressure stemmed from the high and unexpected budget cut against the Education Infrastructure Grant, which was reduced by R497.2m.

The department was relying on this grant to repair 467 schools that were vandalised during the initial stages of the lockdown.

The department also had to provide the necessary infrastructure related to water provision in schools in the form of water tanks and hand-washing stations to ensure reliable water supply.

And the higher than anticipated budget cuts in terms of the cost-of-living compensation of employees, where there was a miscalculation on their compensation, robbed the province of between R400m and R500m.

“The Provincial Executive Council reacted immediately and suggested a number of areas that should be looked at to support the Department of Education and to prevent the projected over-spending from becoming a reality,” said Dube-Ncube.

She said they were hoping for the National Treasury to assist but received no help, so the province resolved to find the money internally.

An amount of R420m was sourced from various departments, with the departments of Transport, Health and Social Development forking out a combined R320m.

The rest of the departments contributed the other R100m. The Department of Education sourced R370m internally for a combined bailout of R790m.