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PARENTS PAY FEES INTO ‘INDIVIDUAL’S’ ACCOUNT

31/01/2015 05:09:00 BY EUGENE DUBE

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MANZINI – When schools took the initiative to have parents pay school fees at banks, the decision was lauded.

However, parents at Ebaleni Primary School were shocked to find out that they had been given an account number belonging to an individual and not the school.
The parents had gone to make payments at the Standard Bank, Nhlangano Branch when they discovered the anomaly.

The fees were for the 2013/2014 school year. Despite the head teacher confirming that a mistake did occur, the parents are not satisfied and are demanding the school’s financial report.
A number of parents who had been interviewed regarding the anomaly, said they are still shocked as to how such a mistake could happen in the first place.
One of the parents, Sipho Manana, reluctantly confirmed the matter in an interview. However, he said no further steps were taken regarding the incident.

“I was carrying two bank deposit slips as I had gone to pay school fees for my child and a neighbour’s child. When I paid for my neighbour’s child there was no problem but when I paid for my child, I was informed that the transaction could not happen since the holder of the account, which appeared on the deposit slip, belonged to an individual and not the school.”
Manana explained that the deposit slips are availed at the school by the head teacher already with the account number.

After discovering that he could not pay for his child, Manana said he returned to the head teacher to inform her of what had happened.
He said she apologised, stating that it was a mistake and proceeded to give a deposit slip with the correct account number. The holder of the controversial bank account is known to the Swazi News but has been withheld for now as investigations into the matter are still ongoing.

Thabisile Simelane, the Head teacher, admitted that there was some confusion regarding the depositing of monies into the school’s account.
“I recall an incident where a Dlamini pupil’s parent, deposited money into the wrong account (account two). The parent deposited the money in account two but I went to the bank and informed them that they should transfer the money to account one.”