KZN Education Department faces R250m debt crisis

'Well-being of millions of pupils at risk'

- THAMI MAGUBANE

A FINANCIAL report has laid bare the deepening financial crises faced by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, painting a picture of an entity drowning in debt.

The department owes close to R250 million to the eThekwini Municipality for water delivered by water tankers, as detailed in the financial report released by the municipality last week.

This comes as the department is already battling to service a debt owed by Section 21 schools to the municipality for services.

It was not immediately clear over what period the debt has been accumulated, but the report covers the latest period from January to March and details all debts owed to the municipality, including by consumers, business, and government.

The financial state of the department is a concern to political parties and the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), which claims that the department has collapsed financially.

KZN Education faced serious budget cuts over the past few years and has revealed that it is struggling to meet its obligations.

It has emerged that it has not paid all the suppliers of the school nutrition programme and missed salary payments to Grade R teachers, who were expected to be paid late last week.

The financial report stated, "An amount of R250 million is owed by the Department of Education for the supply of water tankers."