With only two days to the election, South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) is under fire for the manner in which it has been canvassing for the ANC.
Its political meetings during school hours has set Sadtu on a collision course with its rival teacher unions and opposition political parties has taken a swipe at the disruptive nature of the meetings saying these would further worsen the already failing education system in the country.
In addition, concerns have been raised by other unions about Sadtu intimidation of voters on election day. Since schools will be used as voting stations in 90 percent of the cases, Sadtu could try and influence voters, a union representative said.
There have been reported incidences of intimidation and confrontations in some parts of the country notably Limpopo, Gauteng, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal where small or emerging political parties like Congress of the People (Cope) posed a threat to ANC traditional support base.
A teacher who supports Cope at one of the Mthata-based school, Eastern Cape, and who did not want her name mentioned, shared her predicament. She said Sadtu members use their numerical strength to throw their weight around creating a hostile environment for others to operate.
“Some threatened to remove from office officials suspected to be aligned with Cope. We take this seriously given that a majority of people who hold high offices belong to the Alliance partners making it easy for them to implement the plan,” she said.
The mooted formation of a new labour federation by the former president of Sadtu, Willie Madisha – which is likely to reduce the influence and capacity of Sadtu – is also set to heighten the levels of intimidation.
Alan Thompson of National Teachers’ Union (Natu) said in principle they are not opposed to Sadtu’s strategies but that whatever is done it should not compromise teaching and learning.
“As things stand teachers are overloaded and come end of the year we would all be blamed for producing poor results. We believe that the only way we can improve our learner performance is when we knuckle down on the first few days and weeks of the year. I can’t see how this is going to help us achieve that,” said Thompson.
The chairperson of National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) in Limpopo, Mashudu Manyaga echoed Thompson’s concerns. He said even if they do not agree with Sadtu holding meetings during teaching time, there is no escaping the fact that they are a major player in the education sector. “The impact of the absence of Sadtu from the classrooms would always be severe given the numbers they command within the sector.
So if they decide to hold meetings during school time it means no teaching and learning could take place. As Naptosa we do not support a situation where meetings of a political nature are held during school time,” said Manyaga.
In its reaction, Sadtu’s national office released a statement in which it gave a tacit support to its affiliates. It said education labour relations council, through Personnel Administration Measures (PAM), allows for time off for union business by agreement with the employer.
It said these are part of ‘teachers’ forum’, Sadtu’s traditional gatherings held every one or two years as part of the collective bargaining process to receive mandates from members to be forwarded to the employer.
But education observers said things are currently a bit quit on the labour front and question the need or urgency of convening such meetings particularly during office hours.
Read Sadtu’s statement: “We openly proclaim our support for the Alliance and the ANC in the forthcoming elections and encourage all members to campaign for the ANC [but] outside of school hours.”
The statement further said it supports ANC’s prioritization of education as well as Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign launched last year by education minister, Naledi Pandor.