Teachers threaten to march again
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has vowed that if there is any backlash for teachers who marched to the legislature last Thursday, the union will march again.
MBOMBELA – “If we see any letter to schools saying they must submit names of those who went to march, we will come back here again. There must be no love letters about no work, no pay,” Mr Walter Hlaise, provincial secretary of the union said before handing over a memorandum of demands to the MEC for education, Ms Reginah Mhaule.
The marchers protested the department’s intention to cut teaching posts from the current 32 637 to 31 206, saying it was “an action that displays cognitive dissonance.”
It also said the moratorium on the filling of posts will result in close to 1 500 vacancies in its offices and 100 in general-worker posts. “In practice, this means any vacancy that arises due to retirement, resignation or attrition is immediately abolished from the organogram.”
Also read: Thousands march over education grievances
Thousands of protesters marched peacefully to the legislature from the showgrounds and other parts of the city to present two memorandums to the MEC and the Office of the Premier. The MEC signed for both the memorandums.
According to Hlaise, the protesters included members of Sadtu, Nehawu, Cosatu, the the SACP, Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) and Democratic Nursing Association of South Africa (Denosa).
“Today we are telling the MEC to maintain the current number of teaching posts. Secondly, we want the moratorium placed on the filling of vacant posts to be lifted with immediate effect,” Hlaise told Lowvelder.
He added that Sadtu wants the department to commit to keeping the teacher-pupil ratio at 1:30 and to restore the 2 500-kilometre threshold for fuel for office-based officials.
The Nehawu memorandum dealt with many of the same issues as the Sadtu document, including demanding that the premier’s office put pressure on the education department to withdraw the “Discussion Document for Consultation”, as well as the lifting of the moratorium placed on vacant posts.
According to a spokesman for the Department of Education, Mr Gerald Sambo, the MEC is looking into the issues raised and has agreed to respond by October 10.
“The MEC has not made any decision as yet. We are not able to answer questions pertaining to the memorandum until she has responded,” Sambo said.
See more photos from the protest march below:
