By OBAKENG MAJE

The disgruntled Teaching and General Assistants at Madipelesa Primary School in Taung alleged that the school principal, Eva Bolokang has illegally deducted money from their salaries.  

This comes after these Teaching and General Assistants allegedly continued to receive R350 social grants, while employed by the government and failed to declare. One of the disgruntled Teacher Assistants, Goitsemang Lepang (31) alleged that the principal has already deducted R875 from her salary without her permission and now threatens to fire her when she demands her money back.

“I was not aware that supposed to declare that I am still receiving an R350  grant. She continuously deducts money from our salaries without our permission.

“We are not even sure if that money has been deposited back into the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) account or not. I have two children and also stay with my mother and I am the only one working in the house,” she said.

Lepang alleged that the school still owes her R3400 salary for January and March 2022 and they will embark on a protest to demand their money back.  

Another teacher assistant, Xoli Bosman shared the same sentiments. Bosman (29) alleged that the principal has illegally deducted R1750 at once from his salary.

“The principal was supposed to come up with a better strategy to deduct the money rather than taking it at once. It is so sad that the initiative was supposed to alleviate unemployment, but we are still plunged into poverty.

“The method used to repay the R350 grants is not working in our favour. I was not aware that, I was supposed to declare that I am still getting an R350 grant. So, I feel like the principal has put us under duress and threatened to fire us if we do not cooperate,” he said.

The North West Department of Education spokesperson, Elias Malindi said there is nothing sinister with what the principal has done because she has acted in line with the department’s rules and regulations.

Malindi said school principals should ensure that teacher assistants sign an acknowledgement letter of debt reflecting the chosen option and confirmation of receiving the grants.

“They should also provide a list of all teacher assistants who have signed the acknowledgement letter of debt to the circuit office. Principals, based on the option chosen by the teacher assistants, deduct the amount from the stipend prior to processing the stipend as per the chosen option.

“The school elect the option to transfer the recovered/reimbursed amounts by either transferring the recovered funds to the Provincial Education Department

(PED) bank account or the PED withhold the total recovered/reimbursement from future transfers to the school,” he said.

Malindi said then the school will inform the circuit of the option they have elected for the payment of the recovered amounts.

Meanwhile, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) said in a statement that 288 000 young people across the country have benefitted from this Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI).

Minister of DBE, Angie Motshekgwa spokesperson, Hope Mokgatlhe said the initiative has given hope to many young South Africans. Mokgatlhe said it has also set them on a path of self-discovery and awareness.

“Many have spoken about how this has been a life-changing experience for them. It has given them a sense of appreciation of what it is like to be involved in something whose outcome and impact are far-reaching and long-lasting.

“Many have spoken about how they never imagined themselves working with children or being a teacher. But, their involvement in the PYEI has encouraged them to take up teaching as a career,” she said.

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By OBAKENG MAJE

Most public healthcare centres in North West do not have medicines such as antiretrovirals (ARVs). The detailed report released by the Ritshidze organisation painted a grim picture and showed that North West is lagging behind in extending the supply of ARVs. 

The report revealed that just 6% of people living with HIV interviewed reported three-month ART refills — compared to 25% in the same reporting period last year.

The project manager at Ritshidze organisation, Ngqabutho Mpofu said, their detailed report into the state of the public healthcare system in the North West found improvement in certain indicators and deterioration in others over the last year. 

He said this impact the overall quality of HIV, Tuberculosis (TB), and other health services.

“The report is based on the results of data collected through Ritshidze’s community-led monitoring of 13 facilities in the province together with additional data collected at 57 facilities by Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Stop Stock-outs Project and Ritshidze related to stock-outs.

“The 2022 report identifies challenges that discourage people from going to the clinic for HIV, TB, and other health services. Despite the improvement, stock-outs still persist. This year, there were 398 reports of different medicines, contraceptives, and vaccines being out of stock in total across 57 facilities,” Mpofu said.

He further said 26% of patients said, they or someone they knew had left the facility without the medicines they needed. According to Mpofu, North West has scored worst across all provinces monitored on this indicator.

He added that, even though the waiting times have improved, but remain long.

“More than 91% of public healthcare users interviewed think that waiting times are still long and 64% of those people blamed staff shortages for the long hours waiting. While marginal improvement has been identified in staffing levels in the last year — from 0% of facility managers reporting enough staff last year, up to 15% this year — this remains a very high proportion of understaffed sites.

“Also index testing is always meant to be voluntary, yet worryingly. More than 36% of respondents reported that they could not refuse to give the contacts,” Mpofu said. 

He said, worse, while every precaution should be taken to not put people at risk of violence, 34% of respondents were not asked if their partners had any risk of violence, despite national guidelines mandating this process. 

Mpofu said the report also showed that only 20% of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, 9% of people who use drugs, 14% of sex workers, and 14% of transgender people reported being offered PrEP at the facility. Mpofu said, however, that only 9% of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, 12% of people who use drugs, 5% of sex workers, and 4% of transgender people said they could access lubricants.

“The inadequate space also continues to be a challenge as 92% of facility managers interviewed reported needing more space for waiting areas, filing systems, and rooms for private HIV counseling/testing and medical care,” he said.

 Meanwhile, the North West Department of Health spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane said: “The department is aware of the issues raised in that report. Those are the issues that we have been dealing with since section 100 (1) (b) intervention. These are the issues that were highlighted as areas of intervention and there has been progressing on them, particularly in regard to medication stock-out.

“At the beginning of section 100 (1) (b), the situation was far worse than it is now. So, there have been a lot of improvements in terms of the availability of medication. Of course, there have been challenges with some of the service providers that have put the department on hold because of some monies owed to them.”

Lekgethwane said, however, that a lot of service providers have been paid and they are beginning to see an improvement. He said the issue of long queues, is linked to the availability of staff, but there had been a lot of improvement as they have recruited over 3000 healthcare professionals recently.  

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