Tebogo Msimanga |
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) condemned the retrenchments that took place at the South Africa Qualifications Authority (SAQA).
The institution which has a staff complement of 169 workers retrenched 88 workers .This is after the government cut its funding to divert funds away from departments to the South African Airways (SAA) in a bid to resuscitate the ailing national carrier.
In the 2020/2021 financial year, SAQA had a government grant of R72.5 million but it was cut by R1.2 million by the state.
NEHAWU General Secretary Zola Saphetha said the retrenchments will lead to delays in verifications of qualifications of job seekers thus leaving them in limbo and create more frustrations for the post-schooling sector.
“For our members and workers in the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and the Community Education and Training (CET) sector who are studying to improve their qualification, they will be negatively impacted because the Department of Higher Education and Training uses SAQA to verify their newly obtained qualifications which improve their salaries notches.”
Saphetha said NEHAWU will not stand idle while its members and workers are subjected to a life of poverty just to save SAA “which has been haemorrhaging state funds for years on end”
“ In this regard, we are going to challenge these retrenchments while engaging the Minister of Higher Education and Training to source funding from the National Treasury to save this important government agency.” Concluded Saphetha.
