Sadtu to square up to department

Union will defend legal action over ‘interference’ in redeployments

THE South African Democratic Teachers Union is confident the Eastern Cape Department of Education has no prospect of winning the court action it instituted over the union’s alleged interference in the redeployment of excess teachers.

Sadtu provincial administrator Sindisile Zamisa said yesterday the union would be defending the court action as the department had no evidence of interference.

“I can assure you there is no prospect of us losing,” Zamisa said.

“The department is trying to use Sadtu as a scapegoat for its own inefficiencies.

“They are only trying to blame Sadtu for not doing their work. We will expose their lies and their own inefficiencies in court.”

He said the union did not know how many teachers the department planned to transfer or redeploy for next year.

“Only they know how many teachers are in excess.

“We want to know, where are these excess teachers they are talking about?

“Why are there excess teachers when there are still vacancies at schools?”

He said Sadtu had taken action against the department earlier this year which resulted in the Education Labour Relations Council instructing the department to appoint 1 665 additional teachers.

He said the department had not followed through with this instruction.

“These vacancies have not yet been filled,” he said.

“There are also teachers who have been appointed, who have not yet been paid.

“The department is paying consultants to run [it] and that money could be used to employ more teachers.”

Acting department head Sizakele Netshilaphala launched legal action against Sadtu in the Grahamstown High Court on Friday to prevent its leaders from interfering with the process of the redeployment of excess teachers in the province.

Netshilaphala said in her affidavit to the court that Sadtu was inciting teachers to breach their contracts by protesting about a plan to transfer or retrench 4 200 excess teachers.

The Eastern Cape was the worst-performing province in last year’s matric exams, with a 56.8% pass rate.

Some schools have dwindling pupil numbers and too many teachers, while others are understaffed.

“Intransigence, systemic non-cooperation and unlawful conduct by Sadtu have effectively hamstrung the provincial department’s ability to identify these additional educators and implement the statutory requirements of the post provisioning process,” Netshilaphala said.

“My predecessors in office and I have made repeated attempts to implement the post provisioning process by engaging in a lengthy saga of extensive correspondence, discussions, entreaties, negotiations and meetings with Sadtu officials.”

Netshilaphala also singled out Zamisa as being instrumental in frustrating the department’s efforts.

She is asking the court to compel Sadtu to discipline Zamisa for instructing union members to defy redeployment instructions.

Netshilaphala said litigation was the last resort as it would be difficult to discipline more than 5 500 defiant teachers.

Department spokesman Loyiso Pulumani confirmed the legal action.

“We appreciate the role of the unions in our education system but they must not obstruct the administration of the department,” he said.