Limpopo teachers have raised concerns about the cancelation of the rural incentives as they are already earning peanuts.
About 6,000 teachers in quartile 1 schools received a monthly rural allowance of between R2,300 and R2,500.
This comes after Limpopo education issued a circular on termination of payment of incentives to educators. Serobe Jonas, a teacher at Manoe Secondary School in Senwabarwana, said this was worrying.
“Terminating the rural allowance will kill us financially because we work far from home. It was introduced to keep us where we are working but as things stand, people will look for employment where they won't spend too much money,” said Jonas.
His school is in the village of Tsolametse.
A 29-year-old teacher who works in Burgersfort said there were a lot of workshops that they had to attend and the money came in very handy.
“I stay at school and I only go home on Fridays but now that is going to be difficult with less salary. I teach life orientation in grades 8 to 12 and I need to attend workshops as well. Also, the workload is too much as I don't have a free period from 8am to 3pm then I have to conduct grade 12 afternoon classes. The stress is too much now the department is adding financial stress on top of what we have been going through,” she said.
Another teacher in Tzaneen said she lives in another town for work and spends weekends at her home.
“I am worried that I will not afford to go home on a weekly basis. I have children and I can't stay for the whole month without seeing them,” said the 53-year-old teacher.
The circular, dated November 30 and signed by Onica Dederen, the head of department, read: “The Limpopo department of education implements the policy of incentives to educators as approved by minister.
“Currently, the policy is implemented based on the criterion of weighted distance as a measure of the remoteness of schools classified as quartile 1. Reason for termination is that there are no additional resources available for allocation over 2021 medium-term expenditure framework, instead there is a massive budget cut on compensation of workers (COE).”
Dederen said spending on COE has grown substantially over the two years and such that the budget was overheating. “Based on the above, the department has therefore taken a decision to terminate the payment of incentives of educators with effect from January.”
Tjebane Sowell, South African Democratic Teachers Union provincial secretary, said the department has always been clamouring towards terminating the incentive, a move that was rebutted by the union on several occasions.
“Currently, the issue was escalated to the minister of basic education Angie Motshega as it falls within her purview. It is therefore legally untenable for the Limpopo education HOD to arrogate to herself powers that she does not have under the law to terminate a policy of general application which is a transversal matter.
“The reasons for termination cited in the departmental circular are also quite disturbing to say the least. It must be noted that some of the educators received the incentive as a result of court orders issued by the various courts in the province and the HOD’s actions can be described as a contempt of court for she cannot use self-help to extricate herself out of the obligations of the law,” he said.
He said this could lead to a flurry of litigations against the department.
“Our attempts to reach out at the office of the HOD were met with a cold shoulder as she is adamant that she will not renege on her decision. As a result of this, the union is prepared to exercise its rights under the law by approaching a competent forum/s to adjudicate on the matter. We do not rule out embarking upon an indefinite strike come January next year once all avenues have been exhausted,” Sowell said.
Provincial department spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene said the compensation of employees baseline was reduced by more than R1bn.”
The budget cuts are as a result of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, teachers will continue receiving their salaries,” she said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.