R800 million boost for cash-strapped KwaZulu-Natal Education Department

THE financially constrained KwaZulu-Natal Education department will soon commence with procurement of learning and teaching support materials (LTSM) after receiving a R800 million bailout from the provincial Treasury.

- WILLEM PHUNGULA

In a joint media briefing in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday, Finance MEC Francois Rodgers announced that he has managed to source the funds for LTSM which will also assist the department in running the final examinations. Rodgers, who had announced a few days earlier that the Education department has no available funds to order textbooks, said after meeting with MEC Sipho Hlomuka, they agreed that the department would receive R800 million to start placing orders for the textbooks for next year.

“On the LTSM, we are looking at R881m which is what we tried to take out of the baseline of the department. The money includes running the exams. We have taken into account that additional funding will come from the National Treasury during the budget adjustment. The LTSM process can start now,” said Rodgers.