A vote for the ANC is a vote for SADTU
16 May 2016
The final report on the SADTU ‘jobs-for-cash’ scandal is out on the grapevine; but not officially released because of the inordinate pressure being exerted on the Minister of Basic Education by the teacher union. SADTU wields such considerable power in education, as well as in COSATU and in government, that it has been a law unto itself. Power, not education, is the object of its present existence. It has undue influence in government. For that reason Ministers and MEC’s have to fear SADTU and not the other way round.
Education in South Africa is in trouble. Lowering of standards and the absence of quality control are combining to deny South African youth the kind of education necessary for a modern economy. Learners receive paper qualifications that are heavily discounted in the business world.
The fact that very few learners leave school with maths and science means that our country does not have the skills pool that we require to energize our economy. Young people are flooding the job market but with little success of landing a decent job. The situation is untenable.
COPE has previously drawn attention to SADTU’s website. We do so once again. Sadtu's E-Voice has an entry “Vote ANC” published in 2009 and State of the Nation in 2010. That is all it communicated. As for its campaigns, it had 3 in 2008 and one in 2014. Its research submissions are limited to one in 2010 and 4 in 2011. On the events side it listed Provincial Music Festivals. Going by its Home Page, it is clearly moribund on the professional side.
SADTU only comes alive during the election period. Thereafter, is appears to be involving itself in non-educational matters such as the widely publicised ‘jobs-for-cash’. It certainly does not project itself as a professional body dealing with critical issues of education. Educational matters are not on its agenda. How different SADTU is to professional teacher organisations in other parts of the world.
According to the report the buying and selling of positions appears to be endemic in the entire educational system. The report seen by City Press appears to point to something even more sinister: there exists a “pervasive culture of fear” and “concerns about safety” in the basic education sphere in South Africa. The paper also reports that “The task team has found that in six, and possibly more, of the nine provinces, SADTU is in de facto charge of the management, administration and priorities of education there.
If our country accepts the status quo, the education system will be totally corrupted and parents will have to have deep pockets to send their children to private schools which are mushrooming everywhere.
A vote for the ANC is a vote for SADTU and the continuing destruction of education.
COPE urges South Africans to dump the ANC so that education can be wrested from the malign influence of SADTU and made to serve the children of South Africa in a way that ensures a real future for them.
Issued by Dennis Bloem, COPE Spokesperson, 16 May 2016
