Dear Minister Motshekga, I am writing on behalf of SGB teachers countrywide. We are faced with looming job loses and salary cuts as a result of parents being unable to fulfil their commitments of paying school fees due to job losses. Is there any way that schools can apply for some relief from the Basic Department of Education to assist our schools in this regard? At present our school has placed 10 teachers on unpaid leave due to insufficient funds. This has left a huge gap in curriculum delivery and teaching because of this shortage in staff. I recently read an article in NEWS 24(dated August 31, 2020) that the Minister is looking to employ additional teachers now that learners are back at school. It would be really in bad taste for new teachers to be employed when current teachers are losing jobs or taking salary cuts at established schools in the country. Can the department not absorb some of our current SGB teachers into department posts so that schools can have effective teaching and learning restored? Clearly there is funding available for this suggestion to materialise. Additional teachers can be looked at once schools are in a better financial position to employ temporary staff. I am appealing to the minister to consider the plight of our SGB staff as none of us were able to benefit from the recent TERS pay-outs. Our schools have applied but no response has been forthcoming in spite of us paying UIF monthly. I am positive that the Department of Education will take this matter into consideration and come back with a solution that can save the jobs of our SGB teachers.