Staff at seven Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in Limpopo are due to receive their outstanding pay progression payments from the 2010/11 financial period after Minister for Higher Education and Training (DHET), Dr Blade Nzimande signed approval for the R1,5 million payment last Friday.
This is part of the FET Colleges Improvement Project between the DHET and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to implement a turnaround strategy to support the Limpopo Department of Education (LDE) as part of national government’s Section 100 (1) (b) intervention in the provincial sphere of government.
“We became aware when the intervention commenced that the provincial Department of Education had not implemented the pay progression for FET Colleges staff for the year 2011 in full. Signing approval for these payments is part of our on-going support to the department. We hope that the payments to staff will be effected before the end of the current financial year because they should have been paid a while back,” Minister Nzimande said.
College employees who have completed a year of continuous employment and have undergone the required performance assessment are supposed to receive a pay progression of between one and five per cent based on satisfactory performance.
Colleges are required to submit evidence of completed performance assessment records of staff to the PDE so that payments for pay progression can be effected. While all these processes were undertaken in Limpopo, the pay progression payments for FET Colleges staff were however not effected in full.
“The sooner the turnaround succeeds and stability returns in the provincial department, the better for all of us, especially the students and teaching staff, as well as the parents so that focus can be shifted 100 per cent to effective teaching and learning,” Minister Nzimande said.
One of the key objectives of the FET Colleges Improvement Project is for the DHET, in collaboration with the DBE, to provide the necessary assistance to public FET Colleges to comply with their obligations in terms of the prevailing legislative and policy requirements to which they are subject.
The affected colleges for the pay progression payments are Capricorn, Lephalale, Letaba, Mopani SE, Sekhukhune, Vhembe and Waterberg, with the total of the payments making up R1 533 650 million which will be sourced from the Conditional Grant.
Minister Nzimande approves outstanding pay progression for Limpopo FET Colleges staff as part of administrative intervention in the Province
