Zimbabwean teachers in Northern Cape are desperate following months without pay

Fanuel says that his employer, the Northern Cape Department of Education (NCDOE), is insisting that if he wants to be paid for June and July, he must produce a work permit even though he is on a yearly contract and has been teaching at the same school since 2012.

He says, “We have been working daily … but come payday, they tell us we are not employed by the Department of Education. Our colleagues in other provinces with the same documents as ours are working and getting paid. We strongly believe that this is [due to] a strong dislike of foreigners instigated by high powered individuals who have a total disregard for our survival.”

Fanuel claims “this unfair treatment by our employer” contradicts correspondence from Home Affairs which requested that ZSP applicants be allowed to continue working until the department has finished processing them.

“Life is hard, we are failing to put food on the table for our children yet we are waking up daily to educate South African children wholeheartedly, some of whom are matriculants. We have been reduced to the lowest level of borrowing food stuffs from tuck shop owners. Because we haven’t paid for the other stuff we borrowed, these tuck shop owners are now refusing to give us some groceries on credit. Our bank balances are negative and at the verge of being closed. Our personal debts are accumulating to such an extent that no one is willing to keep lending us money. Our vehicles have broken down due to lack of service.”

Fanuel says that a few weeks ago his child got sick and was vomiting for three days. He say that if not for his neighbour who helped financially, his child might not have survived. He has extended family to support and children attending school in Zimbabwe who were supposed to pay fees before the third term opened on 8 September 2015. He says the problem is affecting him emotionally, as well as his work. He usually goes home in October during school holidays but this year he will not be able to.

He says in June, on the day the schools closed, he got a call from the school principal informing him that he might not be paid from July and the following months if his work permit is not issued. The principal received a document from the province with all the teachers’ names whose documents expired and are about to expire.

The document, part of which is in GroundUp’s possession, contains the names of 23 teachers whose work permits expired by June. A further 78 teachers are listed whose permits are expected to expire by July. The vast majority are listed as Zimbabwean, and are waiting for ZSPs, but a few are from Ghana, Cuba, Namibia and Uganda. Fanuel applied for his ZSP on 12 December 2014, in advance of the 31 December deadline. GroundUp has previously reported on problems with delays with the processing of these permits.

Thabo Mokgola of the Department of Home Affairs says that his department is working with the Department of Education in the Northern Cape to resolve the issue. He says that similar reports had not been received from other provinces.

In an email Northern Cape provincial education department spokesperson Sydney Stander says, “It is important to note that the Department Basic Education is bound by the Constitution to observe all Protocols guiding the employment of foreign Nationals as encapsulated in Policies of the Department Of Home Affairs.”

He says all foreign nationals employed by the Northern Cape Department of Education (NCDOE) are supposed to have the relevant documents allowing them to be in the country, and work here. He says they must have a valid work permit issued by Home Affairs. “Our records shows that many foreign teachers, particularly from Zimbabwe, had not renewed their permits on time and as such that had an impact in terms of the NCDOE processing their salaries.”

He further says, “We are currently processing the salaries of those that have submitted their work permits late for July and August, and we have only four teachers who up to now have not submitted valid work permits. I must note that a work permit is a prerequisite for any foreign national to be appointed and remunerated. As the Northern Cape Department of Education, we are not aware of any directive [and we] do not have any correspondence from the Department of Home Affairs that advises government departments to continue to employ or remunerate foreign nationals who do not have the necessary work permits or whose permits have expired.”