/ 2 December 2011

Sadtu threatens protest over EC teacher dismissal

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) will embark on protest action if the Eastern Cape education department goes ahead with its plan to dismiss over 4 200 temporary teachers by the end of this year, the Mail & Guardian heard on Friday.

According to a November 28 memorandum sent to schools by the department’s human resource administration, “the services of all temporary teachers appointed during the 2011 academic year will be terminated on 31 December 2011”.

The memorandum refers to the 4 200 temporary teachers who were dismissed at the end of 2010, who the department claims were reinstated this year, as well as 200 other temporary teachers who were employed this year.

Sadtu said only about 2 000 of the dismissed temporary teachers were reinstated and threatened to mobilise its 53 000 members to go on strike three weeks ago if the remainder of these teachers were not reinstated. Included in its strike threats was that the department must put aside its decision on the number of teachers’ posts it would fund next year because it did not consult with unions on this.

The teachers did not strike, to the relief of learners who were in the middle of matric exams, and announcements continued to be made by Modidima Mannya, the head of the Eastern Cape’s education department, about the 64 752 teachers that had been budgeted for 2012.

In response, Sadtu lodged a court application at the Bhisho high court last week to get the post provisioning set aside, which they say is far too low.

“These temporary teachers are devastated, this is a painful period for them,” said Sadtu’s provincial secretary Mncekeleli Ndongeni.

Painful
“They are being thrown away by the department even though there is a court case pending about this issue. What effort do you think they will put into exam marking now that they know they are going to be dismissed?” he asked.

“Rest assured we are going to fight this until the end. We are going to mobilise our communities and embark on protest action if these temporary teachers are dismissed.”

In letters to Mannya and provincial education minister Mandla Makupula last week, Sadtu’s attorney requested them in the light of the union’s court action to take no further steps regarding the 2012 posts.

“Please confirm that you will act accordingly, failing which our client will be obliged to precipitate matters to have the matter enrolled urgently,” the letter stated.

Ndongeni said because of the department’s memorandum they had asked their attorney to “move with speed”.

Spokesperson for the department, Loyiso Pulumani, said it would “certainly oppose Sadtu’s high court bid, and we believe we have a very strong case”.

“They were invited to all consultation on post establishment and they decided to boycott those,” he said.

Ndongeni said the dismissal of temporary teachers meant a loss of skills.

Loss of skills
“Many of these temporary teachers teach maths and science but now the department wants to fire them and move a permanent teacher, who can only teach history, for example, into those positions. Do you call this quality education?”

Pulumani said the employment of temporary teachers could cause over-allocation in some schools and that the dismissal of 4 400 would not adversely affect schools next year.

“We will place [temporary] teachers where they are needed, schools are given latitude to apply at the nearest district office in instances they want to retain a temporary teacher in a substantive vacant post not occupied by a teacher in excess,” he said.

“What matters is that the post provision has been done properly this time around and it has taken into consideration the needs of schools.”

On the same day of the announcement of the dismissal of the temporary teachers Mannya sent a memorandum to schools saying the department “has no intention [to set aside the 2012 post provisioning] and will go ahead as planned”.

He said he was aware that there was “some resistance particularly at school level in the implementation” of post provisioning and that some schools are “either failing or refusing to hold meetings” about this.

He threatened “disciplinary action” would be taken against educators who failed to implement the post provisioning.

Ndongeni said “tension is simmering on the ground” with teachers and school governing bodies who opposed the post provisioning.

He said “physical fights might even happen” between department officials who came to schools to implement the post provisioning and educators.