The Department of Employment and Labour has denied not having processed payment to the Department of Basic Education (DBE), for the disbursement of stipends for the Education Assistants (EAs) and the General Education Assistants (GEAs) under the Basic Education Employment Initiative.
According to the Department, the Service Level Agreement that was signed, states that DBE must upload attendance registers on the 15th of every month for the payment to be processed but has not done so for the month of September.
“DBE did not submit complete supporting documents which include the attendance registers, on time.
“The UIF requires the attendance registers for verification in line with the multi-party funding agreement for the processing of invoices for payment of 158,000 beneficiaries from 20 000 schools.
“On 29 September 2025, we held a meeting with DBE and UIF, to discuss the matter and DBE agreed that they would send these documents,” the Department clarified through a press release.
Minister Nomakhosazana Meth assured that they stand ready to process the payment as soon as they receive the necessary documents.
She appealed to her DBE counterparts to desist from making provocative claims, avoid causing any panic, after they released a statement accusing her department of delays in making the payment.
Meth sought to sympathize with the affected beneficiaries and reiterated the significance of adhering to due processes in the disbursement of these funds.
“The department’s commitment to the PFMA, Treasury Regulations and the signed MFA is not red tape, it is a duty to South Africans to safeguard public resources, to ensure that programmes are credible and to guarantee that future public employment programmes retain the trust of both the public and the beneficiaries,” said Meth in the statement.
The minister committed to engage all stakeholders on the implementation of practical and efficient administrative solutions, to avoid future delays of payments.
