Unprovoked attack on SADTU Union refuses to accept lies attributed to the DA regarding changes since 1994, showing support for ANC's progressive actions Nkosana Dolopi, The New Age, Johannesburg, 20 May 2016 Earlier this year, instead of responding to the state of the nation address, a DA MP went on a tangent to attack our union, the South African Democratic Teachers Union. It was really unprovoked, but we were not surprised or disappointed. Our sin or crime is that we are an affiliate of COSATU, an ally to the SACP and an ally to the ANC. And our membership is predominantly black. We have supported the ANC since the first general elections in 1994. Our last national congress reaffirmed our support for the ANC in the local government elections in August. We oppose the anti-union, anti-worker economic policy of the DA. The favourite lie of the DA is to say that nothing has changed since 1994. We refuse to accept this. There are visible changes on delivery of houses, provision of clean drinking water and sanitation, provision of healthcare to millions of people who never had it before and mitigation of the effects of poverty, unemployment and inequality through social grants. More children have a better opportunity to learn, unlike before when the government spent R10 on a white for every R1 spent on a black child. Now there is pro-poor funding directed at poor and township schools. The ANC has created peace and harmony in our country, while allowing citizens freedom to express themselves on any issue, and protest freely without fear of being killed, exiled and/ or sent to prison, as was the case before. No longer is it a sin or a crime to participate in politics. We will not join the DA in the lie that nothing has changed in our country. These are some of the facts that the DA does not want to be known and appreciated: . Unions, in particular in the public service did not enjoy all organisational rights before 1994, including the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike, but we are enjoying those rights now. . We should remind them that it was a sin and or crime tantamount to prohibition for female teachers to give birth. This led to termination of service as there was no maternity leave. Hence many of our female teachers had fewer pensionable years in comparison to their male counterparts with whom they started to work with. Women are now entitled to an uninterrupted maternity leave of four months with full pay which could be extended to two additional months of unpaid leave without risk of losing their job, unlike the case before. . It was taboo for women in the public service to get promotional positions. We now have more opportunities for female teachers for promotional posts and we are assisted by an employment equity plan. . The former government used to spend R1 on a black child while spending R10 on a white child at the same time, whereas the ANC spends more on black children in the township and rural schools. . We should remind each other that the former government only built classrooms in the townships, but built schools in the white suburbs, whereas schools have been built in townships and rural areas since 1994. . Salaries of white teachers were far high than their black colleagues, women across racial lines where earning far less than their male counterparts, whereas today it is not the case. . The training of black teachers was crammed into a three-year course, with no specialisation but basics of everything, whereas our white colleagues were thoroughly trained, with their course spread over four years. The former government never intended to educate the black majority of this country, but only to prepare us as a cheap labour force to serve the masters. Education then entrenched racial segregation with an emphasis on white superiority and black inferiority, as was eloquently articulated by National Party MP JN le Roux in the all-white Parliament. This is what he said: "Schools should not give the natives an academic education, as some people are prone to do. If we do this we will later be burdened with a number of academically trained Europeans and non-Europeans, and who is going to do the manual labour in this country? I am in thorough agreement with the view that we should conduct our schools that the native who attends those schools will know that to a great extent he must be a labourer in the country." This stereotype is no longer part of our objectives in education. SADTU is further hated by the DA because its economic policy is to make the rich richer and the poor poorer - a policy SADTU opposes. The free market, neoliberal economic policy of the DA promotes the following: . Freedom for capitalists from government regulations to make huge profits as they please, while exploiting the poor. . Reduce wages - reduce the number of workers, do away with unions and eliminate workers rights. . Cut public expenditure on education, healthcare, even maintenance of roads and supply of clean drinking water as basic needs of any human being, and a decline in the numbers of teachers, police, nurses and so on. . Pressuring the poorest in society to find solutions to their lack of healthcare, education and social security all by themselves and blame the poor if they fail to get this solution, as being lazy. On February 2nd the Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille, gave us a good idea of the DA's neoliberal agenda and hatred of workers and teachers. Zille made the following dangerous anti-worker proposals to her cabinet: . Freeze appointments in vacant posts and scale down on the number of new posts, in particular posts for teachers. This suggestion by Zille means no creation of new jobs in the public service. . Those schools and SGBs who can't afford to appoint additional teachers will have to live with fewer teachers and overcrowded classes. . Reversal of the collective agreement signed between labour and the government last year. This is an attack on collective bargaining. It is union-bashing and downward variation of salaries and conditions of work. Zille sarcastically said that public servants were paid well. But we know that public servants can't afford to buy houses, or pay for the education and healthcare of their children. All public servants should be worried by the Zille letter. The DA hates SADTU because, unlike them, we are on the side of the poorly-paid teachers who are teaching overcrowded classes. Why would workers support a party like the DA that hates workers unions and SADTU in particular so much? We are not in a world of milk and honey. Poverty, inequality and unemployment are still key features of our lives. The structure of the economy still serves a few at the expense of the black majority. Better education and quality healthcare are still accessed by a few at the expense of the black majority. We have not communicated our advances well enough. We have to use our mass base, our structures and our human resources effectively instead of relying on the hostile liberal media. The branches and our locals should constantly communicate our achievements and not wait until just before the elections. . Nkosana Dolopi is deputy general secretary of SADTU From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/20052016/epaperpdf/20.pdf -- -- 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. 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