EFF CALLS ON THE MINISTER OF BASIC EDUCATION TO TAKE DECISIVE ACTION AGAINST SADTU

18 December 2015

The EFF calls on the Basic Education minister, Angie Motshekga, to take decisive action against members of SADTU and other officials of the department who have been given jobs through illegal means. The Minister has announced that the department welcomed a report by its investigative task team which found that of a “total of 75 cases” it dealt with, 30 provided “grounds for reasonable suspicion or wrongdoing”.

The minister must immediately press criminal charges and suspend all these officials as a sign of anti-corruption measure in our education system. This must be done as a decisive step towards healing the system of corruption in terms of illicit awarding of positions.

Our education system faces huge problems as it is and struggles to transcend its apartheid Bantu Education legacy. The last thing we need are people selling positions of teaching and in the process compromising quality and merit. This is one of the reasons why we have teachers who teach things they themselves cannot understand.

To simply announce intentions to take a criminal route is not helpful; the minister must suspend all who occupy positions where the Task Team has found that there is reasonable suspicion or wrongdoing in terms of their employment.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 18 December 2015