SADTU wants a stimulus package for education
12 February 2021
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU), the biggest union in the education and public sector, notes the State of the Nation Address delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa last night (11 February 2021).
We welcome the attempts and commitment of government to deal with the pandemic more robustly; we urge them to be more transparent and provide the nation with more information on a regular basis to avoid confusion and anxiety caused by fake information.
We also welcome the President’s stance on corruption. We are however calling for more and visible action than commitment. We need to move from intention to action on this question as it adversely affects the poor and the working class. We need to focus on corruption in the public service but we should not ignore corruption in the Private Sector. The Private sector should not be seen as being untouchable when it comes to dealing decisively with corruption. For instance, we are still waiting for some arrest on the Steinhof matter that stole money from the pensions of public servants.
Furthermore, we welcome the move for a Social Compact on Eskom as this was, in the main, a proposal from Labour. We urge Eskom to get its house in order and address all challenges and avoid the destructive load-shedding that has become our regular reality.