Willie Madisha has been fired as president of the SA Democratic Teachers Union and is forbidden from holding office for the next 10 years, Sadtu said on Tuesday.

"The NEC decided to accept the recommendations of the disciplinary committee which were to remove the president," said the union's Jon Lewis.

He was found guilty of unprofessional conduct and/or misconduct for talking to the media about an alleged R500,000 donation to SA Communist Party secretary general Blade Nzimande, and for disobeying a Sadtu and Congress of SA Trade Unions resolution to support Jacob Zuma's
candidacy for ANC president.

The union said he violated the conditions of suspension (in December 2007), by continuing to address union structures and refused to hand over the union's vehicle, petrol card and cellphone.

His sacking came after the union's National Executive Committee met on Monday to discuss the recommendations of a disciplinary committee.

"The committee recommends that Madisha be dismissed as the president of Sadtu with immediate effect," a Sadtu statement read.

Madisha, who was elected president in 1996, would not be allowed to hold leadership positions for all structures of Sadtu for 10 years.

Although he could remain a member, would not be able to represent anybody in the 235,000-member union for 10 years.

He was also ordered to hand over all union assets and vacate the union flat.

Deputy president Thobile Ntola was appointed acting president.

Last year businessman Charles Modise asked to police to find out what happened to a donation of R500,000 he said he had given to the SACP.

At a press conference Madisha, who was an SACP central committee member, said that he received the money from Modise at a meeting at a hotel in Johannesburg and gave it to SACP secretary Blade Nzimande, who has denied this.

This year Madisha was expelled from the SACP and as president of Cosatu over the same issues.

Neither he nor his lawyer were immediately available for comment.

His lawyer Julian Meltz said he had spoken to Madisha on Tuesday and he was "obviously upset".

He and Madisha would meet later on Tuesday to decide how to proceed with court applications they had already launched to challenge the moves against him.

He wanted the Equality Court to find that he had been discriminated against on the basis of his political affiliation to the president of the country, Thabo Mbeki.

At the time of Madisha's suspension, the ANC was about to go into an elective conference split in its support for Zuma and Mbeki, who was ANC president.

Meltz said that Madisha's Equality Court application was in line with the Constitution which allowed freedom of expression and association.

The high court would also have to decide on a bid to force Madisha to return the Sadtu car, which he intended to oppose on the grounds that the meeting that suspended him was not quorate.