Department dithers over info on suspended teachers

Mthandeni Dlungwana KZN Education MEC. Picture Leon Lestrade. African News Agency. ( ANA ).

Mthandeni Dlungwana KZN Education MEC. Picture Leon Lestrade. African News Agency. ( ANA ).

Published Nov 13, 2018

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Durban - Several months after being asked, the KwaZulu-Natal legislature is no closer to knowing how many teachers and principals on suspension have continued to receive salaries - some for years - and how much this has cost.

Education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwana is yet to provide the legislature with the information despite being asked for it earlier this year.

Delays in holding disciplinary hearings for teachers and principals suspended for months and years had contributed to the department’s financial crisis, according to education stakeholders.

And, delays in concluding appeals in cases where disciplinary hearings had been held was contributing to suspended employees being paid for sitting at home for months on end.

However, the department said yesterday that it was the suspended teachers who caused the delays.

Department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said suspended employees used “a lot of delaying tactics”.

“They claim to be sick or their legal representatives are ill or unable to attend the hearings. Obviously it is costly to have someone who is suspended and for a substitute teacher to be put in their place,” he said.

Dr Rishigen Viranna, a member of the education portfolio committee, attributed the delays in concluding such cases to a lack of leadership in the education department and the department of legal services after the suspension of its head two years ago.

Viranna said the lack of political will by Dlungwana to fill vacant posts in the top management of the department led to the people acting in these positions failing to make decisions.

He said the trend of people in acting positions should be dealt with as soon as possible.

“Instead of resolving the cases, the department is wasting money on teachers who are not at work. The money should be channelled to hiring teachers who will actually be in the classroom teaching. Our children cannot be robbed of education while teachers suspended on serious allegations get paid for doing nothing.” Viranna said a permanent appointment of the head of legal services would assist the process.

One of the suspended employees is Newcastle principal Excellent Simelane of Ncandu Combined School. Simelane, accused of assaulting a pupil, has for eight years earned a salary and received bonuses and annual increases.

“The delays are due to the administrative processes, which means that there is something wrong somewhere in the system. The reasonable time should be six months for investigations and the hearing. We also need an appeals committee that will ensure the cases are concluded as effectively as possible,” said Viranna.

Mahlambi said the MEC’s appeals committee sat regularly and matters brought before it were expeditiously dealt with. “The employees who have chosen to go to the media about their suspensions should also tell the public what they were suspended for. Some were suspended for raping pupils, misusing the school nutrition funds, tender corruption, absconding and selling of teacher posts,” he said.

Thirona Moodley, spokesperson of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa, said many of their members had been waiting to hear their fate for years. She said while the delays had major financial implications for the department, they also frustrated teachers.

“All they want is to get the cases over and done with and move on with their lives. We are concerned about how much the delays are costing the department,” she said.

Several teachers were suspended this year after videos of them using corporal punishment surfaced on social media, and a number were suspended over allegations related to sexual abuse of pupils.

Daily News

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