PREMIER HELEN ZILLE DISTORTED STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS

The Presidency is shocked and disappointed by the distortion of a section of President Jacob Zuma's 2012 State of the Nation Address by the Premier of the Western Cape, Ms Helen Zille on Human Rights Day.

Speaking in the Eastern Cape, Ms Zille misled listeners the public, by saying President Zuma had praised the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) even though they were in the middle of striking action in the Eastern Cape. That is simply not true.

President did not mention SADTU at all in the 2012 State of the Nation Address.

President Zuma said: "Our call to teachers to be in school, in class, on time, teaching for at least seven hours a day remains pivotal to success. We thank the teacher unions for supporting this campaign."

We have no idea why Premier Zille has singled out SADTU and left out other teacher unions. Teachers are an important stakeholder in the education of children. There are many teacher unions in the country and all play a critical role as a partner of government, in promoting the quality learning and teaching campaign. By teacher unions, the President was referring to all of them, the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA), Professional Educators Union (PEU) National Teachers Union (NATU), SADTU and the Suid Afrikaanse Onderwysers Unie (SAOU).

In the 2010 State of the Nation Address, the President also welcomed the support of the unions. He said; "We welcome last month's statement by the three teacher unions, NAPTOSA, SADTU and SAOU, reaffirming their commitment to the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign from the beginning of 2010''.

With regards to the Eastern Cape specifically, the Eastern Cape Provincial Government and the South African Democratic Teachers Union signed an Agreement on the 8th of

February to normalise the situation in the province and promote quality learning and teaching.

The agreement was reached following a meeting between the Premier of the Eastern Cape, members of her Executive Council and Cosatu leadership. The President, who personally leads the Task Team working to ensure the normalization of education in the Eastern Cape, welcomed this development as we need all stakeholders to work together to ensure progress.

It is regrettable that Premier Zille decided to mislead the nation in this manner.

Statement issued by Mac Maharaj, The Presidency, March 22 2012

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