As a Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal, we have noted with great concern that the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) is shifting gradually from their “work to rule campaign”. According to SADTU, “work to rule campaign” means that they will only limit their interaction with the department to the employment contract and within the working hours. It means they will only be in schools for seven hours (only) teaching children.
What we have seen in the province recently, is not the “work to rule campaign” as we have been made to understand it. We have seen some members of SADTU abdicating their responsibility to teach our children and we have seen complete disruption of teaching and learning in some parts of the province. In some Districts, teaching and learning has been brought to a complete standstill as a result of these disruptions.
As a department, we recognise that SADTU grievances are legitimate labour grievances, but we would urge that they confine their campaign to the Work to Rule Campaign and not disruption of education. We would appreciate if SADTU can respect the right of children to learn, even for that seven hours. If not that, we would expect SADTU to respect a least their own decision. Their decision is that they are going to engage on the Work to Rule Campaign and nothing more.
Among the issues that SADTU is raising are:
- they want the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga to resign,
- they want the Director-General, Bobby Soobrayan to resign,
- they complain about what they call Minister’s unilateral decision to withdraw the collective agreement.
- they complain about Grade R remuneration etc.
Despite these grievances, which are legitimate and which we respect, we urge SADTU to respect teaching of our children and refrain from disruptive and obstructive engagement. We further caution against excessive actions on these grievances. We don’t need to burn the bridges to proper engagement on these issues.
We have been made aware that there is a meeting involving all stakeholders on Sunday. The meeting is aimed at finding a solution to this challenge and we hope that this meeting is going to yield desired results.
