Teachers are afraid of losing their jobs as the government cuts back on wages which could lead to retrenchments. While teacher unions are hopeful that jobs will not be lost, they have vowed to take to the streets if there are job cuts.
The kwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Education has warned that KZN teachers will not be spared the latest round of budget cuts and that about 11 000 posts are at risk due to budgets having been cut.
The crisis was set off by the government agreeing to a 7.5% wage increase for teachers and other public servants for 2023/2024 without increasing provincial budgets accordingly. KZN education spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said the crisis has been persisting for six years and has now come to the surface.
South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) General Secretary Dr Mugwena Maluleke confirmed the estimated number of posts that could be affected. In KZN and Limpopo this was an estimated 11 000 posts each; 2 000 to 3 000 in the Western Cape; about 9 000 in the Eastern Cape; up to 5 000 each in Mpumalanga and the North West; and the Northern Cape less than 1 000. So far Gauteng had not given an indication of the number of posts that might be affected.
Dr Maluleke reassured teachers who were permanently employed that they would not be retrenched.
“The government has not invoked Section 189 of the Labour Relations Act to indicate that retrenchments were on the cards, nor have they discussed this with the unions. If that happens, Sadtu would be ready to take to the streets,” Dr Maluleke said.
“The posts at risk are for temporary teachers, substitute teachers, for teachers who are on leave, on sick leave or any other leave which is a long-term leave, and then these are also the promotional posts that would have been advertised and so forth.”
Dr Maluleke said according to the government, there wasn’t enough funding to fill these gaps in the system, but he warned that this would lead to overcrowded classes and have an impact on the pupils as well as teachers. He said unions and education MECs would meet the national Department of Basic Education this week to discuss the matter.
The National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) said there hadn’t been any discussion about retrenchments; instead there was talk of some posts that just could not be afforded.
Naptosa CEO, Thirona Moodley said several meetings had been held at a national level to mitigate the issue which needs to be finalised at the end of the month. She said they would be meeting with the DBE this week to discuss the matter.
Elijah Mhlanga, spokesman for the DBE said two weeks ago Minister Siviwe Gwarube had convened a meeting at which she had requested that provinces do an analysis of the impact of the budget cuts. Mr Mhlanga said they were still busy gathering information and that the minister would request a meeting with the Minister of Finance when she was ready.
