Sipho Hlomuka, KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Education has announced that the recruitment process to fill educator posts will be transparent. File Picture: Zanele Zulu / Independent Newspapers
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Education Sipho Hlomuka has announced that the KZN Department of Education will be looking at vacancies for educator posts.
Hlomuka said that the Department of Education is actively identifying all vacancies for level one educator posts.
According to Hlomuka, all of the educator posts will be advertised publicly. This is to ensure that there is transparency in the employment process to dismiss ongoing allegations of corruption with the KZN Department of Education.
THE KZN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION EMBARKS ON TRANSPARENT RECRUITMENT DRIVE pic.twitter.com/4qXYdu0UuD
— KZN Education (@DBE_KZN) June 27, 2024
“We are committed to transparency and accountability in our recruitment process. By advertising these vacancies openly, we hope to demonstrate our dedication to fair and equitable employment practices,” Hlomuka said.
Thirona Moodley, provincial CEO of the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), has welcomed the MEC’s announcement to advertise all level one educator posts, as the province has had challenges in filling the posts.
Moodley said that the ‘educator database’ has not been functional and is the cause of frustration as educators registered on the database have been overlooked for permanent employment. There has been no transparency in the recruitment process, she said.
Allegations that the filling of these posts has been open to corruption and nepotism have never been addressed by the department, according to Moodley.
Moodley said: “Young, qualified educators have been filling SGB posts that pay very little, and they have no benefits like their state-employed counterparts.”
“This new approach announced by the MEC is a move in the right direction and it is what Naptosa has been calling for,” she said.
Hlomuka said that the department remains committed to excellence in education and this initiative is a huge step towards achieving that goal.
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