SADTU STATEMENT ON THE UNION BEING USED TO TARNISH THE IEC
15 February 2024
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) notes the unscrupulous campaign by some political parties to use the Union to tarnish the integrity of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). The latest to climb this bandwagon is United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa.
In a post on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), Holomisa shows a picture of a SADTU-branded car proclaiming the Union’s support for the ANC in the upcoming elections. “The IEC is using this Union to run this country’s elections, an affiliate of COSATU, which is in Alliance with the ANC. This time in our meeting of the opposition parties on 26/02/24, we must take a resolution on this rigging of SA elections,’’ reads Holomisa’s post.
As a seasoned politician who has taken part in elections since the dawn of democracy, Holomisa knows he is telling a lie.
The IEC does not recruit and appoint SADTU members but recruits and appoints citizens including teachers as public servants who meet the minimum requirements to preside over and manage elections. It is a fact that teachers from other teachers’ unions belong and actively participate in political party activities, including in the UDM but are also appointed by the IEC. The ANC has experienced a decline with teachers presiding over the elections irrespective of whether such teachers belong SADTU or any other union as public servants. The ANC wins and loses ward by-elections with teachers as members of any union including those belonging SADTU officiating in those elections.
Why has Holomisa accepted to serve in parliament through the very electoral system he is attacking today? Holomisa must know that lies have short legs and we as SADTU believe in the integrity of IEC. We urge the people of this country to note his character. These are some of the people who have chosen to reject the outcomes of the elections before the day of elections. They have chosen to collaborate with the beneficiaries of apartheid and have allowed themselves to worship them.
We assume that Holomisa or his party are members of the national party liaison committee that, together with the IEC, develops the criteria of people to work for the Commission. The criteria do not indicate that the Commission will recruit teachers affiliated to a specific union or teachers to the exclusion of everyone else.
Once the Commission has recruited staff members to work in voting stations, their names are shared with the local party liaison committees for the parties to give to their structures so that they can raise objections against the suitability of the people who will work at the voting stations. We believe the process is transparent and fair but the likes of Holomisa who are running parties whose chances of getting enough votes to have a seat in parliament are slim, are now creating excuses for their looming demise.
We regard this post as an open attack on SADTU. We will not allow SADTU’s name to be dragged into the mud or used as an electioneering tool in the upcoming national elections.
As the country prepares for the elections, SADTU members will know Holomisa as a union basher. Leaders like Holomisa are already giving workers a taste of what they will do to workers when they come into power, to destroy unions and the rights of workers. Members of trade unions including SADTU have a right in law to be appointed as election officers if they meet the requirements.
Holomisa is no different from the DA who openly want to declare education an essential service and therefore take away the rights of teachers to strike. He is like Action SA’s Herman Mashaba who wants to amend our progressive Labour Relations Act to make it easy to retrench and dismiss workers.
To the people of our country, be aware of the danger presented by the likes of Holomisa who are preparing to reject the election results if he loses.
ISSUED BY: SADTU Secretariat