Teachers from Motswasele CJSS in Molepolele are up in arms against their employer, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) over nonpayment of salaries for the month of September.
More than 40 teachers claim they have not been paid, the same teachers who participated in the industrial strike last year. Last week on Monday, some teachers who had queued to collect their salaries were disappointed because no money had been credited into their accounts.
A teacher, who requested anonymity, said the salaries were supposed to have been deposited last week on Monday.
“We paid government for the time we were on strike and we owe government nothing,” he said, adding that the issue was reported to school management, who then took it up to regional office.
However, the regional office failed to account for the inconvenience. The Deputy School head then approached the salaries department at the Ministry of Finance who then said the DPSM forwarded a diskette with a list of names of teachers who went on strike. However, the DPSM office denied to have sent such a diskette.
“We do not know what is going on in but at least they should consider our problems because it is difficult for us to take care of our families and pay our bills,” he said. “It is so stressing to spend the holiday without money, especially when you owe the employer nothing,” he said.
After a week trying to get their monies, on Friday the DPSM office sent a letter apologizing for the error but did not state when the teachers would be paid.
Meanwhile, teachers are shocked by the reluctant response from the DPSM.
“We service loans with banks and who is going to pay the loan interest?” he asked. Efforts to reach the DPSM were unfruitful at the time of going to press.
