‘Bring independent schools to standstill’

The South African Democratic Teachers Association’s KwaZulu-Natal secretary, Sipho ‘KK” Nkosi, ordered members to ‘close down all public and private schools and all nine FET [Further Education and Training] colleges”, when he addressed marchers outside Durban’s City Hall recently.

This was despite assurances by Sadtu’s national general secretary, Thulas Nxesi, that closing private schools is not union policy. Private schools set their own pay levels and are not party to the public service pay dispute.

Earlier in the week Nkosi claimed a 97% success rate in closing down schools in KwaZulu-Natal. He told the Mail & Guardian that it was Sadtu’s ‘duty to ensure that education comes to a standstill in the province” and that this included the closure of all former model C and private schools.

Nkosi said the programme of action involved the closure of private institutions because ‘the children of the politicians and fat cats are at these schools and they would not compromise in the negotiations because their children are not affected”.

In addition, private schools based their pay increases on government scales. ‘So we are, in fact, liberating these teachers,” said Nkosi.

All former model C schools in Durban have been closed since last Wednesday after being targeted by Sadtu for closure.

Jane Hofmeyr, executive director of the Independent Schools’ Association of South Africa (Isasa), which has 585 members, said the majority of independent schools in the province had been closed since Monday this week, after several received threats.

Hofmeyr said the closure of independent schools by strikers appeared to be occurring mainly in KwaZulu-Natal.

The M&G has seen a copy of a letter circulated to members by Sadtu’s Durban South branch calling for all former model C schools to be targeted for closure.

Indicating a rift between the union’s national and local leaders, the letter calls for ‘revolutionary consciousness” to ‘ensure that for the first time in wage negotiations we break the circle and move away from the usual practice … which has for years seen us embarking on action only to abandon [it] at the convenience of the leadership, irrespective of whether our demands are met”.

Durban South regional secretary Nkosinathi Makhoba denied the letter implied dissatisfaction with Sadtu’s national leadership or negotiators, saying its purpose was to give negotiators the ‘confidence” that teachers on the ground were not buckling under the pressure of a two-week strike.

Hofmeyr said that while government increases to public sector teachers ‘played some role” in private school salaries, some Isasa members paid their teachers less.

She said: ‘Our funding comes entirely from parents and our benefits also differ. Government teachers get housing subsidies, we offer teachers housing at the school and medical aid only for employees, not their families.”

Judy Tate, principal of Inanda Seminary, said the 138-year-old boarding school had closed two weeks earlier than scheduled, after a visit from a ‘fairly demanding group with quite a lot of [public school] teachers”.

Tate said the school had postponed its exams until next term.

On Thursday several former model C schools in Durban, which had re­opened, were shut down swiftly again. Dave Aitken, head of Pinetown Boys’ High, said the school closed again after a visit from a two-person Sadtu delegation. Initially the school had been closed for six working days after it received a threatening letter from the Sadtu Durban South region, which mentioned ‘the use of knobkerries and spears”.

‘There were veiled threats that the safety of our pupils was in jeopardy once they left school because they travelled in town in uniform. We decided to send pupils home early.”