SADTU NEC mourns the death of Marikana miners

The South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU) has joined millions of South Africans in expressing condolences to the families of the miners killed at the Lonmin Platinum mine in Marikana. 

At a two-day meeting of SADTU's National Executive Committee (NEC) held in Johannesburg from 24 - 25 August, also welcomed the announcement by President Jacob Zuma outlining the terms of reference of the Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana tragedy. We welcome the constitution of the commission and the strict deadline set to conclude its task.

We believe it was important for the President to set broad terms of reference and wider powers in order to allow the commission to dig deeper into the causes of the conflict and expose those who might be behind this tragedy.

The NEC strongly condemned the killings and the use of violence in the democratic South Africa. As educators we teach the value of life therefore killing is not acceptable.

 The NEC condemned the emergence of political opportunists taking advantage of this sad and tragic incident and turning it into a political playground. We strongly condemn the behaviour of Julius Malema for using a mourning platform to show total disrespect to the grieving and devastated families and  attack President Zuma. Such behavior is totally un-African.

Further on the Marikana tragedy, the NEC said it would not allow itself to be dictated to by the media on the causes of the tragedy because this is not the time for finger pointing. The media was propagating that the problems with the mines and unions were caused by a widening gap between the union leadership and general membership. The manufacturing of public consent by the media is dangerous and must be condemned because the workers are demanding better wages and decent living conditions that are enjoyed by the bosses.  We fully support NUM's call for a review of the working conditions of miners.

The NEC further resolved that the presidential task team investigations into the Limpopo textbooks saga be completed with speed so that the necessary action can be taken against those who caused this crisis in education. The NEC further noted that the issue of textbook shortages was not limited to the Limpopo province; all provinces were affected. The crisis in education moved deeper than the availability of textbooks. There are other important areas such as the issue of temporary teachers, compliance to the norms and standards for funding schools, the destabilizing post provisioning model , infrastructure backlogs, the appointment of general assistance and the question of teacher development that need to be attended to as well.

The NEC commended teachers in Limpopo for continuing to work despite all the logistics problems caused by the Department. We further impress upon the Treasury to move with speed in supporting the national interventions through Section 100 (1)(b) by availing the necessary funding.

Other decisions taken included:

• The government should move with speed in establishing a public publishing company that will be responsible for the production and distribution of learning and teaching materials;
• The government should move with speed to abolish the tendering system particularly in the provision of essential services in order to eradicate corruption and inefficiencies;
• We call upon all those who are involved in the education of our children to honour the QLTC non-negotiables in particular the Department of Education  to create a conducive environment for quality public education;
• We call on all our people to support the teachers and other education personnel to stop making denigrating statements which end up demoralizing us.
• We reiterate our opposition to subjecting markers to competency tests as there is no universal, standardized collective agreed tool available to conduct this.
• We support the ANC led-alliance in the Western Cape in their opposition to the closure of the 27 schools and call on the DA government to consult all the stakeholders on the matter.
• The union is finalizing a draft document on reviewing the current post provisioning model as part of preparation to engage the Department on the matter.
• SADTU will unapologetically support and strengthen SANCO to occupy the space that is being exploited by those who are masquerading as the "voice of the voiceless" and further engage honestly with this important component of the Alliance to appreciate the difficult terrain in providing quality learning and teaching. Together with SANCO, we can harness each other's competencies to unleash the potential we have to change people's mindsets, protect our schools against criminals and anarchists and also fight for the rights of teachers.  

As we approach the end of the year we would like to call on all the learners to focus on their work and dedicate themselves in preparation for the examinations.

Statement issued by SADTU, August 24 2012

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