South African Democratic Teachers Union
Joint SADTU-SIHOLD Sod-Turning Ceremony
Kempton Park, 12.00 12 September 2014
Keynote Address:
Cde Thulas Nxesi MP
[former General Secretary & Minister of Public Works]
Protocol:
. President of COSATU, Cde S'dumo Dlamini
. Ekurhuleni MMC for Finance, Councillor Moses Makwakwa
. General Secretary, SADTU, Cde Mugwena Maluleke
. SADTU Leadership - national, provincial and branch
. Cde Makgamo Thobejane, NEHAWU
. SIHOLD Board members
. SADTU Investment Trust Chair, Cde Harold Samuel and Trustee, Cde
Duncan Hindle
. Reverend Vukile Mehana
. Staff and membership of SADTU
. Comrades
It gives me great pleasure to participate in this auspicious occasion - the
SADTU-SIHOLD Joint Sod-Turning Ceremony. This represents the culmination of
5 years of very careful planning and martialling of resources. Today marks
the symbolic start of the building phase, when we begin to see the
realisation of an ambitious vision for the construction of the SADTU Village
- a purpose-built national office, training institute, conference centre and
250-bed residential complex.
Who would have thought it in 1990 when we established this Union with thirty
thousand members - most of whom were not paid up; with only a handful of
full-time staff - dependent for their salaries on the solidarity of the
international teacher trade union movement. Who would have thought that
within two decades, membership would stand at over quarter of a million, and
the Union would be planning to construct this multi-million rand national
office - to better service the membership.
SADTU, you have come a long way, and it has not always been an easy journey.
On a personal note, I want to acknowledge my debt to this mighty union.
SADTU was my mentor for 20 years. SADTU trained me and educated me - both in
organisational skills, and politically - and together, as the teachers of
South Africa, we built, for the first time, a mighty non-racial, democratic
teachers' union.
SADTU's roots lie in the struggle against apartheid and the struggle to
establish a democratic and socialist labour movement in South Africa. SADTU
was built on the following principles:
. Democratic, worker-controlled, militant trade unionism;
. Professionalism - understood to mean the need to transform the
education system and to build People's Education, whilst delivering quality
education to all our children, and
. A political commitment to a wider vision of national liberation and
the struggle for socialism.
As SADTU, you always saw the bigger picture and you were a leading part of
that wider movement for national liberation, and after 1994 for
transformation.
At the 2011 NGC, as SADTU you crystalized that bigger picture into the
'SADTU 2030 Vision' - in line with the aims of the NDP. It is very clear to
me that the building of this national SADTU Village plays an important role
in the realisation of the 2030 Vision. As you know, the Vision is based on
Five Pillars:
PILLAR 1: SERVICING UNION MEMBERS
In this PILLAR the union will focus on the following:
o Extensive research on appropriate conditions of service for a teacher in
a developmental state;
o Continuous redefinition of teacher conditions of service to be
commensurate with the inflationary realities of the society we operate
within;
o implementing membership benefits that create a community of members thus
creating a SADTU experience to be aspired to;
o Establishing targeted capacity building programmes that empower the
SADTU members.
I would like to think that the establishment of a purpose-built national
office, with the necessary resources and expertise, will help spearhead an
incremental improvement in service to members.
In particular the establishment of a training institute and a conference
centre will help drive capacity building programmes in relation to:
. Professional development;
. Collective bargaining, and
. Political education - I believe that, as a movement, we would not
be experiencing the current problems if we had invested in a comprehensive
programme of political education for every member of SADTU.
PILLAR 2: CREATING A LEARNING NATION
o Creating, through our classroom commitments, a nation that learns and
advances its civilisation
o Extensive and teacher based research on the best possible methods of
teaching.
o Continuous improvement of learning through the introduction of
nation-building learning material.
Again, the establishment of the Training Institute and the Conference
facility will greatly assist in these objectives.
PILLAR 3: PROMOTING A DEVELOPMENTAL ORIENTED NATION STATE
o Creating and participating in public awareness campaigns that define the
national development trajectory for the coming fifty years;
o Enhance national development awareness through the creation and
promotion of a national value system that supports South Africa's
development trajectory;
o Reorient membership to focus on national development objectives through
learning content delivered to those entrusted to our care;
o Creating a patriotic cadre of teachers and learners through socially
cohesive programmes.
Again, I see the Training Institute having a major role to play here in
relation to curriculum development as well as training of members.
PILLAR 4: CREATING INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
o Creating criteria for international cooperation that are based on the
what defining characteristics and principles of SADTU;
o Promote international solidarity programmes that are based on SADTU's
core belief system;
o Establishing a continent-biased international relations programme that
defines policy on affiliation and/or disaffiliation to international bodies;
and
o Creating a cross-border community of industry like-mindedness within
first the SADC region and later Africa as a whole.
I would like to believe, that when the Training Institute and
conference facilities are in place, they will be made available for
international meetings and events - involving teacher organisations from
SADC, Africa and the rest of the world - both to expand the experience of
SADTU members and to extend solidarity to fellow unionists from beyond our
borders.
PILLAR 5: BUILDING A DELIVERY BASED ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY
o Building a sustainable revenue base that is complementary to membership
subscriptions
o Creating a SADTU Village that promotes organisational excellence in all
fields of required management
o Creating an organiser capacity that sustains and increases current
membership levels.
This is crucial comrades, we are only strong if we are organised. I can see
the SADTU Village as a national hub of organisational activity - training
organisers, shop stewards, leadership on a continuous basis - so that the
national office becomes much more than an administrative centre, but also is
massively enhanced as the organising centre of the Union.
Crucially, the 2030 Vision is based on the development of a new kind of
SADTU member - an informed member - involved in the transformation agenda:
. Early at school
. Well prepared
. Informed and teaching
. An ideal revolutionary teacher characterised by the following:
. able to mitigate the effects of the onslaught by the liberal media
against the working class through correcting misinformation and contesting
wrong ideas propagated by media;
. knowing that education is not, and was never, ideologically
neutral; and
. fully aware that it is through education that our history,
cultures, values and heritage get told.
I have no doubt that the Training Institute and Conference Centre will be
pivotal in the development of the SADTU member.
This is crucial comrades. We are moving into an era where increasingly young
teachers will be coming through who do not share the same experiences of
past struggles. SADTU has to engage with them - to take up their issues; to
facilitate their participation; as well as to share with them the historical
experience of the Union so that they know where we come from.
We have to take seriously the task of cadre development and membership
education, if we are to combat the new tendency where individuals join
organisations - not to fight for a common good - but for personal benefit
and enrichment. Again, I see the SADTU Village raising the bar in this
respect.
In concluding, let me sound a word of caution. We are here today to mark
this milestone event in the life of SADTU - the building of the new national
SADTU Village complex. Indeed, this is a time for celebration. But, we know
that the strength and power of a union can never be measured by its wealth,
its investments or the scale of its property holdings. We must never forget,
that a Union is only as strong as its members. By that I mean, the Union is
strong when:
. It attracts and retains members in large numbers;
. Union members are united and well organised;
. Those members are educated - in terms of their trade union rights,
professional development and political education; and
. The Union services its members - and encourages democratic
participation by members at every level - so that the Union remains
accountable to the members.
This is the kind of unionism that made SADTU - and COSATU - strong in the
past. It will keep you strong in the face of the many challenges to come.
I thank you.
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