Two Alexandra-based teachers expelled recently by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) Gauteng central region for being ‘moles’ of the Congress of the People (Cope), have vowed to fight back the decision.
The two, Veli Mabunda and Chris Mathebula, currently hold the positions of chairperson and secretary respectively in the Alexandra branch of Sadtu. Mabunda is a deputy principal at Alexandra High School while Mathebula is a head of department of sports, arts and culture at Kwa Bheki Langa Secondary School.
Ronald Nyathi, deputy regional secretary, used every opportunity when addressing union members during the recent series of controversial meetings to canvass support for ANC, to inflame emotions by branding the two as ‘sell-outs’.
Said Nyathi in one of the meetings: “we cannot allow a situation where time and resources of Sadtu are used to promote objectives of rival political parties, particularly Cope.”
But Mathebula and Mabunda ridiculed the supposed expulsion saying the region has no constitutional powers to effect expulsion let alone institute a disciplinary hearing.
“According to our constitution, the region is no more than a co-ordinating structure. So their so-called expulsion is unconstitutional,” said Mathebula.
Nyathi accused them of having invited Sadtu’s former president, Willie Madisha, to address a meeting of teachers believed to be sympathetic to Cope.
But Mabunda strongly challenges this: “For the record, I personally had no relationship with Madisha, I only related to him in so far as he was the head of the organization.
“To accuse us of fraternizing with him while it was in fact some of the members within the regional leadership who had cosy relationship with him, smacks of hypocrisy.”
“Besides, to date they failed to provide solid proof that we are Cope members or where the alleged meeting took place as well as names of people who attended it,” said Mabunda.
Mabunda said the ‘expulsion’ should be seen within the context of the prevailing political climate. He said it is nothing but a smokescreen by certain individuals within the regional leadership, who are driven by malice and a desire to trash their credibility.
“They knew if they invoke the name Cope, emotions would run high and they could easily manipulate people against us,” he said.
“The reality is some people within the region could not tolerate us because we do not compromise when it comes to servicing our members. It does not matter who we deal with, whether it is our own comrade, a departmental official or a principal. We are always firm and fair. So they conveniently resorted to desperate smear campaign,” added Mathebula
Mabunda said the matter is handled at provincial level and they had responded to all allegations made against them. And that until the province reaches a different conclusion they remain bona fide members of Sadtu.
In his view the frosty relations between them and the region dates back to the crisis at Kwa Bheki Langa Secondary School.
The school hogged news headlines early last year after learners and parents disrupted classes and accuse teachers of, among others, underperformance and also sleeping with girl learners. The Gauteng department of education responded by suspending the entire school management team re-deploying some of them to the neighbouring schools. Mathebula is among these.
We called a mass meeting soon thereafter, said Mabunda, where we took “a principled resolution that none of our member should fill in the vacancy left by the suspended teachers. But to our surprise some within the regional leadership went back our backs and encouraged some members to take up those positions”.
Mathebula said since relations soured between their branch and the regional structure, they have decided to work with the provincial office. This seems to have worsened matters as the region feels undermined by our direct dealings with the province, said Mabunda.