Ramaphosa to address the first day of Sadtu’s national general council

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday is expected to address the first day of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union’s (Sadtu) national general council (NGC) meeting in his capacity as the leader of the ANC.

Sadtu 10th national general council

Sadtu, the country’s largest trade union for teachers, is set to kick off its 10th NGC from Tuesday to Thursday at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park. More than 250 delegates, including guests, are also attending the NGC meeting.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is also expected to address the meeting this week.

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The gathering will look into the progress made by the union on resolutions taken at its last national congress in 2019, which include – among others – school safety, psychosocial support for teachers who experience serious challenges at schools, and digital learning.

The theme for this year’s NGC is “claiming our right to have our human dignity and safety protected and respected in pursuit of a decolonised quality public education”.

Alliance partners

The NGC will also receive messages of support from the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) general secretary, Solly Phetoe, and the SA Communist Party’s (SACP) general secretary Solly Mapaila.

Sadtu is one of Cosatu’s major affiliate unions and the trade union federation is part of the tripartite alliance with the ANC and the SACP.

Sadtu’s NGC will be sitting for the first time since the government’s failure to honour the last leg of the 2018 public sector wage agreement, which saw public service employees not receiving salary increases in 2020.

This reneging by government has strained the relations with labour unions.

Last week, ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe was booed off stage by delegates at Cosatu’s 14th national congress in Johannesburg.

Delegates expressed anger over government’s failure to honour the 2018 wage deal and refused to allow Mantashe to deliver the ANC’s message of support to the conference.

Ramaphosa was expected on Tuesday to also lead a meeting of the tripartite alliance to deal with issues affecting the alliance.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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