24 May 2016
SADTU notes the statements of the DA, following the release of the Department of Basic Education Ministerial Task Team’s final Report.
Since these DA statements are aimed at SADTU, please allow us, first, to register our objection to the consistently racist, patronising and condescending tone that all of the DA’s press releases adopt. It must be mentioned that the DA issues many press releases. Yesterday, there were no less than six.
We particularly dislike the way the DA uses the word “must” when they are addressing largely Black organisations. The days are gone when whites could tell any Black person what to do in that tone of voice, and be obeyed. We find this way of talking odious, whether it is done by Mr Davis or any other DA member.
There is no “must” for the DA. We are not in a “Cape Colony” any more.
Concerning the Ministerial Task Team Report, we would like to take the opportunity to remind the media that SADTU has not been found to be responsible for the selling of any posts in that report.
SADTU was, in actual fact, cleared through the process of the cash for post investigation. This clearance was emphatically repeated by the Chairperson of the task team, Professor Volmink on Monday, on Radio 702, when he said, “ SADTU, as an organisation,never sold posts.”
If there is going to be evidence that one of our quarter-million members has, or has even attempted to, “sell a post,” in any way, shape or form, then SADTU expects to be shown that evidence at once so that we , SADTU, can start disciplinary actions of our own.
SADTU has consistently, for the past two years, urged the Ministerial Task Team to do its work and complete the report. This is why SADTU has contributed to the report and has assisted the MTT at all times.
More than the above, SADTU wishes, like any citizen of South Africa, that criminals will be charged, convicted and punished. SADTU is not interested in a media frenzy, or in the false indignation of racists. SADTU members want justice. SADTU members do not want any kind of rigging of posts. Fair promotion is one of the main reasons for having a trade union in the first place.
We would like to remind the DA, and the public, that SADTU contributed to this report, in writing, not once, but twice (15 April and 17 May) as well as “in viva voce”.
Meanwhile, the DA continues on its racist agenda of seeing any Black person as inherently corrupt. Theirs is the same mentality as that of the judge who recently remarked that all Black men are rapists.
Our union has repeatedly condemned selling of posts. We have consistently called for the law to take its full course. We will continue to co-operate with, and pro-actively drive the campaign against corruption in education, which is a menace to our members as well as to the learners we care for.
We can see that what the DA wants is to have SADTU in some kind of double jeopardy. They want more opportunities to scapegoat our Democratic Teachers Union. The DA reads, understands and applies the law only in terms of their racist, Neo-Liberal agenda, including the destruction of unions as agents in collective bargaining.
SADTU is also disappointed with the loud silence of the Department of Basic Education. We expected the DBE to unequivocally tell the country, and the DA, that their report does not find SADTU guilty of selling posts. Their silence confirms our long-held view that South Africa has an ANC-led Department of Education that is pursuing the education programme of the opposition party – the DA.
Statement issued by SADTU, 24 May 2016
