The Gauteng department of education (GDE) has confirmed that some education and general assistants may face delays in receiving their stipends due to an ongoing data verification process.

The assistants were placed at schools from June 1 as part of the basic education employment initiative (BEEI), a programme aimed at supporting teaching and learning in classrooms across the province.

While several schools have completed and submitted verified data for payment, others are still under review. The department said the delays were caused by “duplicate or invalid ID numbers, incorrect banking details and incomplete data entries”.

“As a result, only assistants whose details have been verified and cleared will receive payment in batches. Those still undergoing verification will be paid once their data is finalised,” said GDE.

About 8,000 assistants may be affected in the first payment cycle. The department has urged schools and districts to inform assistants accordingly.

The GDE has assured all qualifying participants that they will receive their full payments once the verification process is completed.

“The department is working tirelessly to complete this process before the end of July.”