The Gauteng Department of Health paid more than 552 internship and community service employees yesterday, 31 January 2019 and more payments are expected on Monday, 04 February 2019.
This follows a realisation of a possible delay in salary payments of statutory appointments.
The Head of Department (HoD), Dr Mkhulili Lukhele immediately sent out a communication informing hospitals CEOs of the delay in salary payments to alleviate panic amongst affected employees.
Salaries can only be processed after posts creation which must be preceded by endorsement by Provincial Treasury. This process happened in January. The endorsement is part of GPG checks and balances to ensure that the Department spends within allocated budget and the process is necessary for accountability purposes.
“In order to address outstanding payments due to late submission of professional registration documents, another run is scheduled for Monday the 4th of February and it’s expected to pay out on the 7th of February 2019. A team is working round the clock to prepare for this next run”, said HOD Lukhele.
Moreover, Gauteng Health always gets a large proportion of these interns and community service doctors who are required to complete this training as it’s a statutory requirement to qualify for the profession.
Currently the Department has a total number of 1528 trainees, however 1378 is the initial number that was allocated to the Department . An additional 150 was allocated to ensure that all students in need of internship are provided an opportunity to complete their studies.
“We express regret for all the inconveniences caused by this mishap and we are prepared to do all in our power to ensure that it never happen again”, concluded HOD Lukhele.
For more information please contact:
Khutso Rabothata
Cell: 060 997 7066
E-mail: mediaenquiries@gauteng.gov.za
