A dispute in the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) is threatening to disrupt elections for school governing bodies (SGB) for more than 5000 Eastern Cape schools this month.
Yesterday, the disbanded provincial leadership of Sadtu, which has more than 5000 teachers affiliated to it, met with branches from across the province at St George’s Hall in King William’s Town to draft a provincial plan to boycott the elections.
Sadtu has threatened not to work with the department to organise the elections after the union’s national body announced it had disbanded the provincial executive committee and a task team had been set up to replace provincial leaders.
The national body had warned that disciplinary action would be taken against those hell-bent on disrupting the elections. Responding to provincial Sadtu threats, Eastern Cape department of education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said: “The official position of the department is that the SGB elections will take place, as it is a national mandate.”
Education MEC Mandla Makupula is expected to officially launch the elections in Sterkspruit next Monday.
Pulumani said some districts had trained and appointed election officers. A total of 5536 schools were scheduled to elect their SGBs. The number of pupils determine the number of parents who will serve on the SGBs.
Pulumani said there was a table that the national Department of Basic Education used to determine the number of participants. He said parents were trained on rules and responsibilities of SGBs and there were SGB coordinators in each of the 23 education districts in the province.
He confirmed the department would be using the 2012 ballot papers, already delivered to schools.
This was after the Daily Dispatch learnt that the department had allegedly used funds meant for elections for other matters.
Pulumani would not deny or confirm this, only saying: “This was a cost-containment measure. We work with what we have and it is not like we were caught with our pants down. We cannot throw away material that can be used.”
He said funds were allocated for the elections. R500000 was allocated for accommodation, catering, hiring of tents, chairs and public address system.
In addition, Pulumani said the national Department of Basic Education had supported the province with material costing R300000, made up of posters and flyers. — msindisif@dispatch.co.za
Sadtu dispute threat to SGB elections
Yesterday, the disbanded provincial leadership of Sadtu, which has more than 5000 teachers affiliated to it, met with branches from across the province at St George’s Hall in King William’s Town to draft a provincial plan to boycott the elections.
Sadtu has threatened not to work with the department to organise the elections after the union’s national body announced it had disbanded the provincial executive committee and a task team had been set up to replace provincial leaders.
The national body had warned that disciplinary action would be taken against those hell-bent on disrupting the elections. Responding to provincial Sadtu threats, Eastern Cape department of education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said: “The official position of the department is that the SGB elections will take place, as it is a national mandate.”
Education MEC Mandla Makupula is expected to officially launch the elections in Sterkspruit next Monday.
Pulumani said some districts had trained and appointed election officers. A total of 5536 schools were scheduled to elect their SGBs. The number of pupils determine the number of parents who will serve on the SGBs.
Pulumani said there was a table that the national Department of Basic Education used to determine the number of participants. He said parents were trained on rules and responsibilities of SGBs and there were SGB coordinators in each of the 23 education districts in the province.
He confirmed the department would be using the 2012 ballot papers, already delivered to schools.
This was after the Daily Dispatch learnt that the department had allegedly used funds meant for elections for other matters.
Pulumani would not deny or confirm this, only saying: “This was a cost-containment measure. We work with what we have and it is not like we were caught with our pants down. We cannot throw away material that can be used.”
He said funds were allocated for the elections. R500000 was allocated for accommodation, catering, hiring of tents, chairs and public address system.
In addition, Pulumani said the national Department of Basic Education had supported the province with material costing R300000, made up of posters and flyers. — msindisif@dispatch.co.za
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