BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – The Deputy Prime Minister’s Office (DPMO) has paid a sum of E13 708 788 for children that have been unable to pay deposit fees for school at the beginning of the year.
These are the children that found themselves out of school due to the inability to pay deposit for their school fees. As a result, Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Thulisile Dladla in May this year announced that such children should register with the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) under the DPMO and go back to their respective schools.
The response was overwhelming, as more than 6 000 of those children took advantage of gesture by the DPM and her team. According to the 2024/25 first quarter performance report of the DPMO, the exact number of the learners who responded was 6 113.
“Due to high numbers of out of school children as a result of inability to pay deposits before admission, the Office in fulfillment of its mandate invited all out of school children to register in all DSW offices nationally. The response was overwhelming as 6 113 children applied for the deposit payment. A sum of E13 708 788 was spent in paying the deposits fees,” said part of the report.
The report further mentioned that the DPMO made an additional payment of E7 728 913 as a top up to the one-third amount received by schools in January, benefiting 175 schools. Schools that benefited are those that had less enrolment, had received less one third amount and are both urban and rural areas. In total E21 437 701.00 was spent by the Office for the payment of the top ups and additional one-third deposits.
