10 Feb 2020

Learners in all brigade institutions and technical colleges including Gweta Brigade have not received their January 2020 allowances.

Minister of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Development, Mr Mpho Balopi told Parliament that the delay was a consequence of a student registration and payment control process, ‘which presently, takes up to 25 working days before learners can be paid, something which happens beginning of each semester.’

He explained that according to section 8.6 of the Learners Rules and Regulations Manual, students were given and had accepted a period of 10 working days to either register or and attend classes before disbursements of allowances could be made.

Minister Balopi added that the rationale behind this was to let institutions observe the enrolment list (monitor late arrivals and drop-outs) before a cut-off for payment was determined.

Mr Balopi said upon the lapse of the a 10-day grace period, another administrative process, which could take up to 15 days between the institutions and ministry headquarters, set in.

He said that the process had resulted in payments being made long after the day of opening and in that sense; it was true that although the current semester started on January 7, allowances still remained unpaid.

He further informed Parliament that he shared the concerns highlighted and also could relate to the underlying frustrations of the students as a result of the administrative process outlined.

“Clearly some major corrections in the process have to take place,” he said.

He explained that to improve on service delivery regarding payment of students allowances, the ministry was presently in commercial consultations with BotswanaPost (the entity to contract to disburse) regarding the best possible payment method that could reduce the turnaround time drastically.

Mr Balopi said that Poso-money and the associated enabling technological intervention was being considered.

He said although this was a work in progress, they were still pursuing a mobile-funds wallet, which learners could access at their convenience and without being restricted to a specific time-window of making withdrawals as is the case presently.

The minister stated that the proposed solution was intended to have management control benefits such as the ministry being able to reconcile and check balances on line.

He concluded that his expectation was that their contracted service provider would help deliver the required technology-driven solutions sooner rather than later.

Mr Balopi was responding to the question asked by Member of Parliament for Nata/Gweta, Mr Polson Majaga, who had asked the minister if he was aware that Nata/Gweta Brigade students did not get their allowances on time and therefore were unable to pay their rental fees. ENDS