Thyolo, June 6: Teachers from four zones of Chisawani, Nansato, Goliati and Khonjeni in Thyolo have this morning resumed work, four weeks after going on a strike to force government to settle their leave grants.
The decision was arrived at Wednesday after government released over K25 million to settle teachers’ leave grants and arrears.
TUM had petitioned District Commissioner Charles Thombozi who took up the issue with the Ministry of Education.
According to Thombozi, government has given the district council a go ahead to pay the teachers through viament.
“This means that the money will be drawn from other operations of the district education office,” explained Thombozi.
“The district made an error during the budget submission of 2014-2015. We did not put into consideration the teachers who were posted in May 2014. By the time these teachers were posted the district had already submitted the budget for leave grants,” explained the DC.
According to Thombozi, the leave grants balance amounts to K44 million but government has released K25 million and the remaining amount will be released after an audit at the DEMs office.
He promised that teachers could start receiving their leave grants from this Friday.
“When it comes to payments, we were paying both who were already in the system and those who were just posted, and that is what made the money not to be enough,” he said.
Thyolo District TUM Chairperson Mcneal Makhembo was convinced with the way the DC had handled the matter.
