SCHOLARSHIP allowances owed to UNESWA and William Pitcher students will be paid by next week, Minister of Labour and Social Security Phila Buthelezi has promised.
“The money is there”, the minister says, “it is only a question of whom to pay and how much.” The minister says payment was delayed by late submission of invoices by administration of tertiary institutions.
The minister says the ministry maintains an open channel of communication with students and student representatives regularly come to the ministry for updates on issues of students’ welfare. We talk to them and they understand. “Unfortunately, it is difficult to appreciate their grievance once they approach the ministry in protest mode.”
The minister flagged concerns about elements of mob psychology and a strike culture that has entrenched among students. “There is absolutely no reason for students to be already on strike so early in the academic calendar. Some students are not even a week in class and they are already on strike and learning institutions are now closed”.
“This is where you begin to suspect that the students are being manipulated by external retrogressive elements. Students need to understand that strikes hurt the student worse than whoever they think they are fixing. At the end, students fail their exams because persistent protests and strikes have consequences. Strikes, sometimes lasting weeks, mean that students are not able to concentrate on their studies. Come exam time, they fail”.
“About 300 students who were on scholarship are no longer in the system this year. We discovered that some have failed, others are repeating some subjects and are unable to pay as the scholarship will not pay for repeat subjects. Many have discontinued and are therefore home”.
“I appeal to students to be patient. The ministry is working on the issue. Invoices that are already with the ministry will be transmitted to the ministry of finance before the end of this week, and we have every confidence that these will have been paid by the end of next week.
“At the same time it is important to note that other colleges are open and normal learning continues. We thank these students who exercise patience and show understanding of the processes required before allowances are paid.”
Buthelezi said many of the students affected by outstanding payment of scholarship allowances are First Years who are not yet captured in the scholarship system. “Our processes require that as soon as students are registered, the tertiary institution administration compiles a batch of invoices that captures details of each scholarship student and submit them to the ministry. These records need to be verified before transmission to the ministry of finance for disbursements”.
Buthelezi said the administration at the University of Eswatini and William Pitcher College are partly to blame for the delay saying up to now, some invoices, especially for First Years have not been submitted. “Some invoices only arrived on Tuesday and others yesterday which is an indicator that some students may not be paid right up to the end of October.
One of the contributing factors to the delay is the increase of the number of students that have been enrolled on scholarship. “Government responded to the public appeal for more scholarships and this year added an additional one thousand slots”. He said many students are still processing their scholarships. “Students at the Christian Medical University are still in the process of signing their scholarship agreements. Some only signed last week,” Buthelezi said.
“It’s not an issue of government being unable to pay scholarships. Money is there and government will pay allowances once they know who is in class and how much needs to be paid.”
Though there is no indication when all allowances may be paid, Buthelezi says this will depend on institutions submitting invoices. “We are still awaiting invoices for First Years. For example, UNESWA which has the largest student population has still not submitted invoices for First Years. So, we cannot project when students will be paid without knowing when these invoices will be submitted.”
However other institutions have submitted invoices for first years. “For instance, William Pitcher invoices arrived yesterday, ECOT VOCTIM and BOTHO submitted last week. These invoices are being processed as we speak and if all goes well, money will be in the students’ bank accounts by end of next week.
Other invoices that may arrive tomorrow or later, if all goes well, they will have been paid by October. We do appreciate that it is not easy for students who have not been paid their allowances. For that reason we appeal to parents to also contribute and not derogate all responsibility for the welfare of their children to government just because they are on scholarship. If there is something you can contribute, please do,” he said.
