education90The New Age reports that scores of teachers from across Mpumalanga who are affiliated to the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) will be temporarily downing tools and taking to the streets of Mbombela on Thursday.  They will be picketing at the headquarters of the provincial department of education to hand over a memorandum of grievances to education MEC Reginah Mhaule.  Build-up activities for the march have been held at various education districts and circuit offices since last week.  In their memo, the union accuses the department of abolishing vacant teaching posts and planning to retrench about 1,400 teachers.  

Sadtu provincial secretary Walter Hlaise said the union was worried because the number of pupils admitted to schools every year was increasing but the department still prioritised firing teachers instead of increasing the number of teachers as per the growing number of pupils.  Hlaise said the department “notified stakeholders that it was intending to cut the number of teaching posts in the province from the current 32,637 to 31,206 thereby butchering more than 1,400 needed teaching posts.  This diabolic and vicious declaration happens in the face of increasing pupil enrolment figures and demand for more teaching posts to be created.  Scores of temporary teachers are going to be jobless in January 2017.”  

Provincial education spokesperson Gerald Sambo said they were aware of the march by the teachers to hand over their memorandum of grievances.  He stated:  “We cannot deny the union an opportunity to voice concerns since it has the right to do so.  However, we are worried about pupils who are supposed to be receiving lessons from those union members.  We will study the contents of the petition and then take it from there to avoid the disturbance of teaching and learning when the schools reopen in the last quarter.”

Read this report by France Nyaka in full on page 23 of The New Age of 28 September 2016


Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page