Union slams ‘political’ choices

THE restructuring of education districts in the Eastern Cape was done without a guiding document, and “political alignment” played a central role when it came to deployment.

This is according to the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) in the Eastern Cape, who claimed this resulted in a predominantly male team of district directors, despite there being more qualified women for the posts.

In a move to improve school results across all grades, the department went from having 23 districts to 12 at the beginning of this month. At a media briefing last year on the new service delivery model and realignment of districts, education MEC Mandla Makupula announced it would cost the department R1-billion to restructure the number of districts in the province.

Naptosa provincial chairman Siphumelele Lunika said the organisation supported the move as it aimed at an improvement of service delivery in education.

However, Lunika said they were disappointed about the state of readiness of the province. “No migration plan has been developed and negotiated with the affected unions at the relevant bargaining chamber, and as such there is no guiding document in place to inform the movement of employees.”

Provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said although they had not received anything official from Naptosa, the allegations by the organisation were “shocking”.

Lunika claims the education head office failed to announce the people who would be at the helm of the new districts due to political alignment.

“Political alignment of individuals is playing a central role and that has resulted in a team of district directors that are predominantly males.”

Mtima said a meeting was planned for today to give an update on the process. —