SADTU pays tribute to founder Poobie Naicker SAPA, The Citizen, Johannesburg, 3 April 2014 SA Democratic Teachers' Union founding member Poobie Naicker has died aged 87, the union said on Thursday. He died in Johannesburg on Tuesday while attending to union business. "Comrade Naicker became the first deputy president of SADTU when the union was officially launched on the 6th of October 1990 in Shareworld, Johannesburg." Prior to SADTU's establishment, Naicker was president of the Teachers' Association of SA (Tasa), which was the biggest Indian teachers' union. "Even though Tasa was dominated by Indian teachers, it was ahead of its time as it stood for non-racialism. "Its constitution stipulated that it was open to everybody. However, it could not practice that due to the apartheid system in the country at the time," SADTU said. It was due to Naicker's "visionary leadership" that Tasa brought to SADTU its membership, assets, shares, secretariat support services, and a 15-storey building in Durban, laying the foundation for the fledgling union. "Cde Naicker had a passion for communities and believed in a truly non-racial South Africa which made him fully embrace the idea of a united, non-racial, non-sexist teacher union which led to the formation of SADTU." Naicker served the teaching profession for 45 years and was principal of Willowpark Primary School in Umhlatuzana, Chatsworth. "Born in a farm in Umzinto, [on the] south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, Naicker started schooling at the age of 10 and had to walk for 20km to school," SADTU said. He initially refused to attend high school because he felt he had a duty to work and support his family, but finally relented. He studied part-time for his teaching qualification while working at a sugar mill. When he became a teacher, Naicker continued studying part-time through the University of Natal and received Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees. Naicker is survived by his wife Neela, his son Arul and daughter Logie, as well as four granddaughters, Kerusha, Leevania, Dianka, and Yeshinee. - Sapa From: http://citizen.co.za/154157/sadtu-pays-tribute-founder-poobie-naicker/ Report also carried on Business Report <http://www.iol.co.za/business/news/sadtu-pays-tribute-to-poobie-naicker-1.1 670581#.Uz1srPmSyzA> and AllAfrica <http://allafrica.com/stories/201404031067.html> -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
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