SADTU aims to end infighting and fix policy Karl Gernetzky, Business Day, Johannesburg, 6 October 2014 The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) on Sunday concluded its national general congress with a resolution to end court battles against the union by its members. The union's 260,000 members resolved to fight the state on policy, including on teaching posts and the annual national assessments. The assessments need to be reviewed over a three-year cycle, re-elected general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said. SADTU wants the annual post provisioning of teachers, and the assessments, aligned with three-year state budgets. It resolved to end annual assessments of maths and language performance of primary school pupils. This would allow for more sophisticated support and intervention at schools, for example by allowing the retraining of teachers for posts, Mr Maluleke said. SA's biggest teachers' union has resolved to continue supporting the ruling African National Congress. Delivering SADTU's resolutions on Sunday, Mr Maluleke said 1,500 delegates had resolved to deal with battles within the union. "The congress resolved that any structure leader or member that takes the union to court shall have dismissed themselves." All court proceedings should be withdrawn immediately, he said. SADTU's resolution follows comments by Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) president Sdumo Dlamini to the congress on Thursday that the federation was battling financially over legal battles brought by those unhappy with legitimate decision-making by leaders. This was against the principles of unionism, he said, which was to use members' money to advance their interests in the workplace. SADTU has not escaped the infighting plaguing COSATU, which is grappling with internal pressures that call into question its structure, such as the principle of one union per sector. SADTU's former president, Thobile Ntola, was expelled in May after a disciplinary committee found him guilty of bringing the union's name into disrepute, as well as for administrative failings and corruption. Mr Ntola was a staunch supporter of COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, and some of his supporters maintain the expulsion was political. The Eastern Cape, however, failed to reinstate Mr Ntola as president and lost a court case on the eve of a four-day congress that endorsed Mr Ntola's expulsion. Mr Ntola is barred from SADTU membership for 10 years. SADTU has said it is aware that current and former members are mobilising to create a new public sector union. Mr Ntola is replaced by former deputy president Magope Maphila. Upon his official assumption of the post yesterday, Mr Maphila called for an end to competition within the union, which was hampering its ability to do its work. "Those who lose at conferences immediately start preparing for the next conference." Union leadership was largely unchanged, with the post of deputy president filled by Mabutho Cele. Nkosasana Dolopi remains deputy general secretary. Lindiwe Motshwane was retained as national treasurer, while Dorcus Sekabate, Gloria Kgoleng and Veronica Hofmeester have been elected as the vice-presidents of gender; sports, arts and recreation; and education respectively. From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/labour/2014/10/06/SADTU-aims-to-end-infight ing-and-fix-policy -- -- 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.
