Relief at Last: Payments Finally Released for Education Assistants

After weeks of frustration and uncertainty, the government has confirmed that delayed stipends for thousands of Education and General School Assistants have finally landed in their accounts. Speaking at a press briefing in Pretoria, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube and Deputy Employment Minister Jomo Sibiya apologised for the delay, saying payments began rolling out from 10 a.m. Wednesday. The delay affected many young South Africans under the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI), many of whom were unable to buy food or pay for transport while they waited. Sibiya acknowledged the human cost of the delay adding that the departments involved, including the UIF and IDC, have pledged to fix the administrative hiccups that caused the mess in the first place. Phemelo speaks to Deputy Minister Jomo Sibiya about what went wrong, and what’s being done to ensure it doesn’t happen again.