SADTU:Education not revolution should be teacher's core business
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on teachers who belong to the South African Democratic Trade Union (SADTU) to put the interests of learners first by terminating their union membership en masse thereby ending the financial lifeline that keeps this anti-education organization, which is hostile to the interests of learners, alive.
We reiterate that teaching should be declared an essential service. We propose again that unions should be held accountable for the unlawful behaviour of their members during strikes. We urge government at all levels to assert with vigour our constitutional responsibility to ensure that teaching and learning takes place in an orderly and secure manner - and with quality.
If there was any doubt that SADTU has turned into a reckless monster, it is today's statement on SABC2 by its president Mr. Thobile Ntola that this union of teachers will make our country ‘ungovernable'. The escalation of anarchistic rhetoric comes on the heels of yesterday's statement that SADTU has declared ‘war on government' (City Press 10 October). SADTU will not sign the wage agreement but will not take ‘industrial action', at least not for now.
Mindful of the fact that revolutions are made by the unmet expectations of a rising lower middle class rather than the efforts of the organized working class, it is now crystal clear that SADTU seeks to style itself as the politico-military arm of COSATU.
After reading through the speech that Ntola gave at his union's recent congress in Boksburg, I did not know whether to laugh or to cry. Laugh because his endless tirade amounted to nothing more than a call for a North Korean-style "revolutionary" state. Cry because, well, as the leader of our largest teachers union, he said absolutely nothing of importance about our education crisis. He did not even seem to understand it, nor care about its consequences.