The Times
*Clock ticking for Zuma to act on Motshekga**Sipho Masombuka, Quinton Mtyala and Poppy Louw, The Times, Johannesburg, 25 April 2013*
A school shutdown is looming should President Jacob Zuma not fire Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga in 21 days.
Thousands of SA Democratic Teachers' Union-affiliated teachers - backed by Cosatu - gave Zuma the ultimatum as they took to the streets yesterday.
About 6000 teachers who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria hurled insults at Motshekga as they passed Basic Education offices on Struben Street.
Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini, who led the Pretoria leg of the protest, said the labour federation was behind Sadtu and its demands.
"[We cannot have] a minister and a director-general who undermine collective bargaining . there is a call for the dismissal of the minister and the DG. Cosatu is fully behind those calls," Dlamini said.
Asked what would happen should Zuma ignore the demands, Dlamini said: "The plan is clear. What you see today started with the work-to-rule activities by the teachers; it is a march today.
"You will hear strikes And may I remind our government, we signed a three-year agreement so that we can focus on issues of transformation of the public service.
''The minister is delaying us from focusing on those issues, let her be warned and come back to the table about these serious issues."
At the Cape Town protest, Cosatu Western Cape general secretary Tony Ehrenreich said: "If the government does not listen to teachers today we want to assure them that all of the members in Cosatu, all 260000 members in the Western Cape, will come and join you to make sure that we fix the problems in education."
Sadtu accuses Motshekga of having plunged the department into chaos, pointing at the Limpopo textbook debacle and the Eastern Cape education crisis.
It is also gunning for Basic Education director-general Bobby Soobrayan. It said its call for the duo's removal was in defence of collective bargaining and promoting quality public education.
Teachers have been on a go-slow since the start of the second term. The department has threatened to act against them for taking part in an "illegal" strike and to implement the no-work-no-pay principle.
But Dlamini warned Motshekga not to take any action against the teachers: "There is fire already. Don't pour oil on the fire."
Dlamini, who was accompanied by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, said children could not be held to ransom by two individuals.
While teachers sang and held up placards calling for Motshekga's and Soobrayan's heads, pupils roamed the streets in Soweto.
Though they supported their teachers' cause, they said they were the ones who suffered.
Musi High School Grade 8 pupils Shaun Segale and Nkosinathi Tshabalala, both 14, feared they would suffer should their teachers stay away for more than a day.
"We will be left behind and ultimately blamed for failing at the end of the year. We are the ones who suffer," Segale said.
Diepkloof mother of six Thabile Mabizela said teachers should find other ways to raise their grievances against the department instead of abandoning pupils.
Annette Lovemore, DA spokesman on basic education, said she had complained to the Human Rights Commission about Cosatu and Sadtu.
"I have also tabled a motion that parliament debate appropriate measures to prevent union activity from interfering with our children's constitutional right to receive basic education," Lovemore said.
COPE Youth Movement spokesman Bongani Mahlangu slammed the protest as "selfish".
He reiterated the party's call for Motshekga to resign for failing to ensure quality education for children.
*From: http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/04/25/clock-ticking-for-zuma-to-act-on-motshekga*
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