Why is SADTU afraid of accountability?

DA Leader Mmusi Maimane's announcement last week that the DA will introduce a national education inspectorate has SADTU bosses running scared.

The SADTU General Secretary's hysterical response to the idea of a national inspectorate is to be expected from a union whose greatest fear is being held to account for the destruction it has wrought in our education system.

The fact is that SADTU bosses have been allowed to operate with impunity for too long. The ANC government has allowed the SADTU leadership to capture our education system for its own nefarious purposes.

The Ministerial Task Team on the 'Jobs for Cash' scandal found that SADTU is at the apex of a national network of bribery and corruption involving the buying and selling of educator posts. It found that SADTU does this by deploying its cadres into provincial governments and that SADTU is in de facto control of 6 of the 9 provincial education departments.

SADTU's dominance is a key reason why our education system is failing in poor, mainly rural provinces. Weak educators are shielded from being held to account for failing our children, and teachers are actively encouraged to stay away from schools as we saw in Limpopo a few weeks ago.

This is why SADTU is afraid of a national education inspectorate. It is scared that this inspectorate will fully reveal the extent of SADTU's culpability in our failing education system. It is afraid that the balance of power will shift away from corrupt union bosses and towards the children of our country.

It is time to restore balance in our education system by holding those who fail our children to account. We must celebrate the thousands of capable and dedicated teachers both inside and outside of SADTU. But we must make sure, at all times, that the children of our country receive the educational opportunities guaranteed in our Constitution.

Issued by Gavin Davis, DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education, 16 February 2017