Schools disrupted as Sadtu protests over job cuts
OPERATIONS at some schools in KwaMhlanga in Mpumalanga were disrupted when Sadtu members picketed in protest against what it called government job cuts.
Sadtu Mpumalanga provincial secretary, Walter Hlaise, said the pickets started on Monday throughout the province.
He said the bone of conten- tion was that the provincial department of Education had started “cutting 1 400 teaching jobs” by freezing vacant posts.
“We are saying they must unfreeze these posts,” said Hlaise.
He said the union was also against what he called the occasional transfer of officials from the department’s head office to other structures in the districts to fill vacant posts in various capacities.
The picket in KwaMhlanga started at about 11am on Tuesday when about 300 people gathered outside the government complex. They walked to the KwaMhlanga campus of the Tshwane University of Technology, about 800m away.
Hlaise insisted that teaching was not affected in schools, saying most of the people who took part in the labour action were Sadtu shop stewards.
But several pupils were seen walking home while the picketing was in progress.
Five pupils who claimed to be from Musi Primary School in section B of KwaMhlanga said most of their teachers left the school at about 10am and joined the picket. – ANA