We are giving up hope on the financial situation in the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal, as it will continue to close the recruitment of employees due to insufficient funds.
This problem will make it impossible to carry out other important programs such as paying for other things related to technology, cars, repairing buildings, paying schools money for norms and standards and other programs.
A bad picture was painted by officials of the Department, including the Minister, Mr. Sipho Hlomuka, the Head of the Department, Mr. Nathi Ngcobo and the finance manager, Ms. Yali Joyi, when they appeared before the Department’s committee in the Legislative Assembly regarding the passing of the budget for the year 2026/2027.
Hlomuka lamented the well-known challenges of failing to send school money on time.
“The challenges of not having access to the budget is something that we always complain about in the committee. The programs that are being implemented due to the budget include Early Childhood Development (ECD) and others. We are trying to do things despite the difficult situation we are facing,” said Hlomuka.
Ngcobo said that they cannot fully support the Coding and Robotics teaching program, which is one of the new courses.
He complained that not being transferred to a marriage during the increase in the salary of government employees, is what got them into trouble.
“In the financial year 2024/2025, the workers’ allowance was increased but the marriage was not included. We cannot not increase the amount once it has been agreed because it has been increased in general. It cannot be said that the amount is increased, and we in KZN say that we cannot do that because we do not have the money. The increase of the amount put us in a hole of R2.3 billion. We cannot pay for many things including cars, technology, school fees and other programs.”
Mrs. Joyi said that R58.7 billion goes to the salaries of the employees out of the R71 billion budget of the Ministry. This allocation includes money for different grants, including food in schools, for improving infrastructure, and more than R6 billion.
Salaries consume 90% of the budget and 10% for all other programs.
“There are vacancies for teachers, and other office workers that are not filled due to money. Many programs are affected by the problem of insufficient budget,” he said.
It is a history of the challenges facing the Department as it cannot pay contractors on time because of this problem. This problem was defeated by the Minister of Basic Education, Ms. Siviwe Gwarube, who tried to intervene in this matter together with the provincial Premier, Mr. Thami Ntuli.
Last year, the Ministry failed to buy textbooks for schools, it only bought stationery. This Ministry has recently been given R2 billion so that you can transfer it to schools as you have challenges.