JOHANNESBURG - Hundreds of professional Zimbabwean teachers working in South Africa on asylum seekers' permits are battling to recover their salaries. Investigations last week revealed that some teachers in KwaZulu Natal and Mpumalanga Provinces have not accessed their salaries for more than a year. Some female teachers said they were now resorting to prostitution in orde“I joined this school (name supplied) in June last year, and I am yet to receive even a single cent for my work. Luckily for me, my husband has been sending me money for both food and rentals, otherwise I would have quit this job long back,” said a Zimbabwe-born female mathematics teacher employed at a secondary school in KwaZulu Natal.
Another female computer teacher employed near Pietermaritzburg, said she was yet to receive her salary for the 12 months she has been employed at a local primary school.
“Others are not willing to come forward to expose this problem because they fear losing their jobs. We are moving forward in teaching the children due to our faith, otherwise the majority of us could have left long ago, she said.
“You keep working despite not getting the money hoping one day the salary will come,”
said a mother of three, who is employed near Pietermaritzburg, teaching computer science and mathematics.
School administrators have blamed the three-month extension period given by Home Affairs to the asylum seekers.
“By the time the payment process reaches our provincial and regional headquarters, the asylum seeker permits for these teachers have expired. So we have to stop their salaries,” said one teacher at Nini Primary School.
Executive Director for Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF), Gabriel Shumba, said such actions by government schools were in violation of the law as well as human rights.
“It is illegal for an employer, let alone a government department, to deny payment for work done. Asylum seeker permits are legally valid documents for purposes of employment in South Africa and anybody who chooses to ignore that is defying the laws of this country, and should be sued,” said Shumba.
He advised all those affected to seek legal recourse with his organisation and the South African Lawyers for Human Rights.
There was no immediate comment from the Department of Education’s national director, Dr. Duncan Hindle by the time of going to press. Home Affairs’ Acting Chief Director, Responsible for Asylum Seekers Management, Advocate Busisiwe Mkwebane-Tshehla, urged the government, private companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to pay asylum permit holders.
She confirmed asylum permits allowed one to work and study in South Africa. “The position of the DHA is that all government departments should accommodate asylum permit holders, and pay them accordingly. Asylum permit holders are allowed to take up employment, therefore they should be paid,” she said.
Post published in: News