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We are no longer garden boys of the DA - Sadtu

We are no longer garden boys of the DA - Sadtu

1st December 2016

By: News24Wire

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A meeting to discuss the "jobs for cash" report on Wednesday was marred by racial undertones after the Democratic Alliance (DA) called the report by the South African Council of Educators (Sace) "nonsensical".

Unions, governing bodies and Sace were briefing Parliament’s basic education committee, where they reported some of the problems they had with the report and its findings.

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These included the lack of speed with which the report was compiled, as well as the generalisations in the findings.

Sace chief executive Rej Brijraj took offence after its report into the "jobs for cash" scandal was slammed for being dominated by the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and was referred to as "nonsensical".

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They were accused of absolving all the educators implicated in the Ministerial Task Team report on "jobs for cash".

Sace had been requested to investigate the phenomenon of the sale of teacher positions.

'Racial attitude'

It was hurtful, Brijraj told the committee, for their work to be referred to as nonsensical, and they would be seeking relief on the matter.

But Sadtu was more upfront in their objection, saying that calling the report nonsensical bordered on undermining the work of Sace, and that it smacked of a "racial attitude".

"The times of garden boys have passed. We can’t be called here to be insulted, we are no longer garden boys of the DA," Sadtu deputy president Mabutho Cele said.

Committee chairperson Nomalungelo Gina apologised and said it was not the view of the committee.

This did not sit well with DA MP Gavin Davis, who said that if they believed the report was nonsensical, they would say so.

It was merely semantics, the DA said, as it was the same thing as saying a report did not make sense.

Davis said the attitude and the racial name calling by the Sadtu leader meant they must have touched a nerve.

Sace was not captured by Sadtu, they told the committee, nor were they dominated by them.

'Whitewash'

At the same time, Sadtu had not captured the education department, they said.

Sace told the committee that if educators were prevented from being office bearers of political parties at different levels, then parties would be bereft of the largest intellectual pool in the country for its leadership ranks and would have to look for non-teachers to fill posts.

Their report was called a whitewash and concerns were raised over the Sace chief’s executive’s association with Sadtu.

Brijraj told the committee that other unions had previously chaired the council and nearly all decisions had been made by consensus.

"Sace has never been, and will never be, party to masking the truth," he said.

Concerns were raised over the task team’s recommendation that the power of school governing bodies to make recommendations for appointments be revoked.

The Suid Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU) told the committee that a community should have the power to make recommendations with regard to teachers that fit the requirements for that community.

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