Jobs for Cash: SADTU is calling the shots

6 May 2016

Minister Motshekga’s failure today to release the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report in the face of SADTU pressure is inexcusable.

On 4 April, Minister Motshekga announced the postponement of the report’s release to today, 6 May. 

Today, she has shifted the goal posts once again.

Her failure to release the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report has nothing to do with matters of process, and everything to do with pressure from SADTU.

Yesterday, SADTU issued a threatening statement urging Minister Motshekga not to follow through with the release of the report. Today, Minister Motshekga meekly complied with SADTU’s wishes.

Every time it looks like Minister Motshekga has found the resolve to take on SADTU, she backs down again. What will it take for her to break SADTU’s stranglehold on our education system?

Minister Motshekga has not named a new date for the release of the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report, and instead set a vague deadline of “two weeks”. But it is difficult to take her promises seriously any more.

Minister Motshekga’s latest failure to release the report is an admission of her own powerlessness. It is clearly SADTU, not Minister Motshekga, who calls the shots in our education system.

If it ever sees the light of day, the ‘Jobs for Cash’ report will show that six out of nine provincial education departments have been captured by SADTU. Minister Motshekga’s failure to release the report today suggests that she has been captured as well.

Issued by Gavin Davis, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, 6 May 2016