HANDS OFF OUR PRESIDENT THOBILE NTOLA!!!
The DA has, in its campaign to vilify SADTU, again shot itself in the foot.
Its latest call to have our President Thobile Ntola resign from his position and go back to his school Chubekile Secondary School where he is principal because the school has obtained a 29.3 % matric pass borders on being libelous, smirks of mischief, naivety and racism (see statement).
Comrade Ntola has since 2006, been seconded to serve in the national office of SADTU - a procedure that the DA is supposed to know since they purport to know everything when the opposite is the truth.
Had Comrade Ntola not been seconded, the DA would still be blaming him for being between the school and the union. Being seconded, he is automatically substituted at his school.
Leaders of the other teacher unions - most of whom are teachers, are also serving their unions on a full-time basis through secondments which are legally recognized through Chapter G of Personnel Administrative Measures (PAM) which deals secondments and time off. It reads thus:
"SECONDMENT"
4.1Entitlement
"The employer recognises the need for employee organisations to utilize the skills and expertise of their members to manage the affairs of the organisation. Employee organisations are therefore entitled to have educators seconded to organisations registered with the ELRC, to occupy full time positions to which they have been duly elected. This entitlement applies only to employee organisations in good standing, and who comply with the provisions of the LRA and the Constitution of the ELRC".
When Comrade Ntola joined the school in 2000, the results were as a low as 20%.
SADTU celebrates the fact that by the time he left in 2005, the results stood at 85%.
President Ntola is and will remain committed to quality education and Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign (QLTC).
His position as president enables him to engage in this campaign and commitment at an advanced level. It is inconceivable why an organisation like the DA would pursue somebody who has been seconded to his organisation except to come up with one conclusion, which is: political provocation. Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign is the way to go, not finger pointing and grandstanding by as DA does.
We are aware of their "Trojan Horse" school books with DA stamps donated to schools in the Eastern Cape. We will take them head on.
The DA has no interest in education but everything to do with politics and is using education to get back at us because of our stance and support for the ANC.
The DA represents the interests of the rich, predominantly white elite and not those of black workers and the poor in general.
Since the DA has declared war on us, we are ready to fight.
Statement issued by the SADTU Secretariat, February 23 2010
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