Hundreds of disgruntled assistant teachers previously deployed at various schools in the Gauteng Province converged at the Department of Basic Education headquarters in Tshwane since the wee hours of Wednesday morning to demand permanent employment from the Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
“Panyaza promised us heaven and earth, he promised to employ us forever and ever,” said one of the aggrieved assistant teachers who didn’t want her identity to be revealed.
“We demand permanent jobs, we are going to sleep here outside the offices of the Department of Basic Education until we are hired permanently,” she said.
The assistant teachers are part of a group of youths who were employed to ease the workload of permanent teachers in Gauteng schools by the Gauteng Provincial government under the auspices of Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
They told Tshwane Talks that Lesufi promised to employ them permanently earlier this year at a rally that was held just before the national general elections of 29 May 2024.
They say it seems like Lesufi’s promises to employ them permanently were just an election ploy, this as their contracts were abruptly terminated on Tuesday 31 July 2024.
“On July 12, 2024 we delivered a memorandum to the Gauteng Provincial government at the Union Buildings demanding to be employed permanently, and we were told that we will get a response after 14 days,” said an aggrieved assistant teacher.
“We used to fill up stadiums around Gauteng at rallies whereby Panyaza Lesufi promised not to hire us for one or two months but to hire us forever and ever,” said another assistant teacher.
“Schools can’t function without us, we slept here outside the offices of the Department of Basic Education since Wednesday morning at 5am, we are not fighting, we are not using violence, we are not destroying any property, but all that we want is for Panyaza to fulfill his promises to hire us permanently,” she said.
“If we leave this place without our demands being adhered to then the rate of unemployed people is going to rise,” she said.
Other irate assistant teachers told Tshwane Talks that due to their absence from schools, teachers are again overburdened by the huge workload which they as assistant teachers used to perform.
“If they don’t want to hire us anymore as assistant teachers then the government of Gauteng must absorb us into any other permanent programne that is under its control because we don’t earn the Social Relief of Distress R350 for unemployed people and we are also denied an opportunity to access NSFAS funds, so what does Panyaza expect us to do?”she asked.
“We used to register people for Lesufi’s Nasispani programne at the schools we were working at, and regrettably we didn’t register ourselves in that programne because we were under the impression that we were permanently employed as assistant teachers,” lamented yet another assistant teacher.
The following statement is a verbatim response from the Department of Basic Education regarding the plight of the aggrieved assistant teachers:
The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) wishes to clarify the status of the contracts for all Gauteng Youth Brigade (GYB) candidates. These contracts were part of a short-term programme and did not constitute permanent job offers.
The initiative, known as the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI), was started by the Presidency as part of the COVID-19 relief to schools. It was funded by National Treasury and managed by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), among other departments, through Provincial Departments.
The PYEI was managed in phases based on the availability of funds. Each phase was duly advertised, and the duration thereof clearly communicated to all stakeholders. At the end of September 2023, the national initiative ended as initially scheduled in all provinces.
Subsequently, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) decided to enter into new contracts with GYB candidates, who were still working in Gauteng public schools, for a period of six months (from February to July 2024).
The GDE fulfilled this mandate using its own resources and wishes to clarify that there was no promise to extend these contracts beyond July 2024.
The intention of this programme was to afford the youth, on a rotational basis, an opportunity to earn an income while benefiting from training and gaining experience.
Therefore, the GDE wishes to clarify that this was never intended to be a permanent employment opportunity, and all candidates were duly informed about this. Candidates who have been protesting were addressed several times about this matter, and this has been thoroughly explained to them.