Cape Town — The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) expressed concern over the appointment of the Demacratic Alliance’s (DA) Siviwe Gwarube as the Minister of Basic Education.
President Cyril Ramaphosa made his long-awaited cabinet announcment on Sunday evening and revealed that the new Government of National Unity consists of 32 ministers and 43 deputies.
The opposition parties in the GNU occupy 12 of the 32 positions, one of them being the Minister of Basic Education, with Gwarube taking over the reigns from Angie Motshekga, who is now the Minister of Defence.
According to SABC News, SADTU has expressed concern over the DA’s education policies and anti-trade union stance. It said it has never been on good terms with the DA due to this.
“They’ve always made statements that SADTU- for all the problems that are there in the education sector, they always put them on SADTU’s doorstep. They always accuse us of opposing the education in this country, of being in charge of education, and of controlling the department of education and the ministers and all,” SADTU spokesperson, Nomusa Cembi, said.
She added that SADTU is there to protect its members and ensure quality education for all, and that the DA does not see SADTU as a solution, but as a problem.
#NationalExecutive | The Minister of Basic Education is Siviwe Gwarube.
📸: Parliament of SA pic.twitter.com/Aq9DAIzXcb
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) June 30, 2024
SADTU’s Mugwean Maluleke spoke to Newzroom Afrika and expressed the same concerns as Cembi, saying the DA has no interest in addressing the challenges faced by black teachers in the sector and he was not happy with the appointment of the DA.
“We acknowledged that the president has the prerogative to appoint whoever he wants, however this is an affront for the appointment of Siviwe because in the manifesto of the DA, the DA is creating a narrative based on iedologies that the DA believes in that SADTU is a stumbling block to quality education, and the DA has been clear in rejecting those transofrmation policies that the department of basic education wanting to impelment, inclyding rejecting the BELA Bill,” Maluleke said.
He said the minister would now have to look at this relationship between the two institutions.
“We really are not happy, I must indicate, with the department being headed by a person from the DA, irrespective of whether black, white, or brown that is not an issue. The issue is that those (people) believe in the ideology that the DA still has, that the poor and the working class must always accept the inferior status and this white supremacy mentality has governed the DA,” he added.
Teacher union SADTU has rejected the new education minister, the DA’s Siviwe Gwarube. The union says the DA has no interest in addressing issues faced by black teachers in the sector. SADTU’s Mugwena Maluleke says they are not happy with the department being headed by a DA member… pic.twitter.com/HLEvR8QCQz
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) July 1, 2024
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
