‘The unfortunate delays in payments to Education and general assistants are due to the processes being undertaken by the Department of Basic Education,’
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) has blamed ongoing payment delays affecting Education and general assistants on administrative problems within the Department of Basic Education (DBE), which is responsible for vetting and processing payments nationwide.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the GDE said it wanted to clarify the situation following mounting concerns from affected youth.
“The unfortunate delays in payments to Education and general assistants are due to the processes being undertaken by the Department of Basic Education,” it said.
National verification issues
According to the GDE, the DBE recently introduced a new centralised payment system for Phase V of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative.
However, the new system is facing difficulties, particularly in the verification of candidates.
“The DBE acknowledged that their new centralised payment system introduced for Phase V is experiencing challenges such as verifying candidate ID numbers against the Department of Home Affairs database, matching those ID numbers and names to the correct bank account details, and resolving discrepancies where candidate data does not align with application data on the SAYouth platform,” the GDE explained.
The DBE reportedly implemented the centralised system to enhance accountability and reduce fraud, but the unintended consequence has been a widespread delay in payments, affecting numerous candidates across the country, including in Gauteng.
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Gauteng verification complete
While the Gauteng Education Department confirmed that it has already completed data validation at both school and district levels, many candidates in the province are still without payment due to national-level delays.
“Although Gauteng’s data verification is largely complete and validated at school and district level, some of our candidates remain affected by this delay due to the DBE national centralisation of the payment process,” the department said.
The GDE said it remains in contact with the DBE and hopes the situation will be resolved swiftly.
“We remain hopeful that the DBE will fast-track and conclude their verification processes to ensure that all youth employed at our schools are paid without any further delay,” the statement concluded.
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