Address of President Magope Maphila on the opening of the 10th SADTU National Conference: Midrand, 25th September 2024.
My Greetings
Members of the National Working committee
Members of the National Executive Council
Members of the PECs present today
Members of the Branch Executive Committees
Comrades from all Alliance structures and the broader mass democratic movement
The Leadership of the mighty Federation, COSATU
Greetings to our international guests, friends and comrades
Greetings to our branch delegates from all our Provinces, representing the more than 270 000 Members of the Union across the country
Our guests, ladies, and gentlemen:
We are gathered here at Birchwood today and in this fashion as the parliament of the workers of the mind who continue to soldier on within our classrooms in all the villages, townships, formal and informal settlements, towns and cities, urban and rural areas of our country, South Africa.
We salute you comrades.
Let me start by extending my words of appreciation to the General Secretary, comrade Dr Mugwena Maluleke for having been elected the President of the Education International during the recent International Conference held in Argentina Buenos Aires from the 26th July 2024 to the 02nd August 2024
Comrade Maluleke, we salute you in your capacity as the shop-steward of the teaching fraternity across the globe. Sadtu is very proud of you, you have stood the test of time.
Comrades as we continue to appraise ourselves of the work done and what lays ahead of us, lets remind ourselves that our struggle, is a struggle for life. It is a struggle that
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we need to define and locate accurately within the opposing forces in the globe and within the geographic space we find ourselves.
As we gather here today, the education fraternity across the globe is under immense attack from the neo liberalists helped and aided by the capitalist forces broadly. This unholy coalition of the right takes various forms but whatever form they take we always know their end goal which is the total annihilation of the left forces and final subjugation of the working masses.
Capitalism is waging wars across the world, in Africa, in the middle East, in the far East and literally everywhere, there are armed conflicts differing in scales and intensity. War has become a permanent feature and a modus operandi of the imperialist west to annihilate left forces and march towards subjugation of the working people.
The international situation today is dominated by the richest imperialists, America aiding far right organisations to thrive in Europe and the middle east but even more blatantly sponsoring any organisation that shows signs of supporting imperialism and the capitalist agenda. This underlines the fact that in the absence of revolutionary communist perspectives, the owners of capital have a free hand. This happens while the Russian Federation is kept busy in the unending geopolitical conflict in Ukraine.
The USA is using this opportunity to prevent Russia from ever reestablishing itself as a rival on the international scene. NATO, long dominated by America not only encompasses former people democracies in the eastern Europe but expands to the Baltic states and it sets its eyes on ex-Soviet Republics like Ukraine.
In Africa lack of perspectives has paved way for the deadly ethnic confrontations and aggressive nationalism, and populism that threatens peace and stability that is so needed for the development of the continent.
This appalling situation is painted by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights which indicates that there are more than forty-five armed conflicts in the middle east and North Africa, more than thirty-five armed conflicts in Africa, more than twenty-one armed conflicts in Asia, more than seven armed conflicts in Europe, and more than six armed conflicts in Latin America.
According to our analysis there is one common denominator in all these disruptive armed conflicts. Capitalist mode of existence is the cause. The core sponsors are the
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capitalists and their proxies with only one goal in mind: accumulation of resources, displacement of the left forces and ultimate subjugation of the working masses.
The US is by far the biggest military spender in the world. The money is spent so that big US corporates can drain wealth from all over the world.
In paying for the war, the US government is not defending the Ukrainians, the Israelites, the Iraqis, the Libyans or anyone else it claims to defend. It certainly is not defending working class people of those countries.
It is defending the right of a very small class of people to control the world wealth, that is, the American capitalist class. It is the same capitalist class that has sponsored conflicts and coup détats in Africa and elsewhere in the world.
War is the mechanism that capitalism has used to keep its rotting system from floundering. It will keep using war until the day it dies, until working people in world find a way to get rid of the system that needs war to survive.
The reason we are raising these macro challenges is for us to understand the impact of these conflicts on our children, students and educators who find themselves in the spiralling wave of violence.
I read two pieces of paper, one titled “the slaughter in Gaza” and the other “ The war has stolen our future”.
The situations as shared in those papers are traumatising to say the least. In Gaza 65 000 school age children are entering the second year in which they have been denied the right to education because of the on-going war between Israeli Government and Hamas. More than 45 000 of six-year-olds have not even started to go to school due to the devastating war. Education has totally stopped. Free ! free! Palestine from the river to the sea
According to reports gathered through World Health Organisation 25 000 school age children have been killed or injured. Schools’ infrastructure has been reduced to rubble. Schools and shelters have been targeted through aerial bombardments. Those who are still alive spend time on the run seeking shelter with no time to learn.
While the South African government has done something to raise the alarm, the world is watching and does nothing practically to stop the slaughter in Gaza.
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The above situation may as well refer to Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Mozambique, Eastern DRC, Libya, Western Sahara, Yemen, Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Mynmar, Mexico, Colombia, Ukraine, the list is endless.
The children of the rich are in safe havens in the US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and all other sponsors of the wars and armed conflicts.
Only the working class and their children are suffering from these blood cuddling acts of banditry.
In 2011 a study by Rojas (2011) found that nearly everything considered as “human” can be found in childhood. When this stage of life was happy, healthy, full of affection and properly directed, people are left with the strength to deal with anything. Being a child, who needs learning during times of armed conflict is not an easy experience.
Conflicts affect the fundamental rights of children. The educators, students, family school infrastructure, homes, school environment, curriculum and all educational efforts are reduced to nil. The United Nations has postulated millions and millions of children are out of school and most of these are children in conflict zones.
In economic terms, it is common knowledge that during periods of armed conflicts there is lowered spending on education, health and other social investments. This has long term effects on the budget and down stream curriculum delivery and teacher training.
The Mandela Children‘s Fund has issued a Report in collaboration with Deloitte, 2023 titled “State of the South African Child Report”. The report and findings are so telling in terms of the state of the South African Child.
Comrade Nelson Mandela once said, “The true character of a society is revealed by how it treats its children”. He elaborated further by saying “overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity, it is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom”.
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We want to join the Nelson Mandela Fund‘s call for action in relation to education, and of course we support other actions in dimensions such as health, safety and poverty alleviation.
The findings of the report resonate with all what SADTU has been advocating for. And when we, unselfishly, raised them, the naysayers have always doubted our call for action. Now that an independent report is out there, let’s get our hands dirty and work for the sake of our children.They are our future!!!
The call for action to education includes but is not limited to:
Increase investment in education -particularly targeting disadvantaged schools and under-resourced schools to provide infrastructure cand materials.
Improve teacher training programs – ongoing professional development, and support systems to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in the classrooms. Teachers need to be provided with the necessary tools, and resources to effectively deliver the curriculum and address the diverse needs of the learners.
Prioritise ECD initiatives – to ensure children have access to quality early learning opportunities via investment in the ECD centres, training of caregivers in programs that focus on holistic child development, including cognitive, emotional and social skills. Capacitate homes and communities in rural areas where there are no formal ECD centres to provide children with the base they need.
Regular review of the curriculum – needs to take place to ensure its relevance, responsiveness to societal needs and alignment with global trends.
Promote innovative teaching methods – with the incorporation of critical thinking, digital resources and creativity to prepare learners for the challenges of the future.
Encourage active involvement of parents, guardians, and communities in supporting children ‘s education.
Advocate for safe and inclusive school environment where children feel respected, valued and protected from violence, bullying, discrimination, and harassment.
Establish robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to track progress gaps and ensure accountability in the education system.
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Foster collaboration among government agencies, civil society organisations, private sector and international partners to collectively address education challenges through platforms and join initiatives to maximise resources and expertise.
Comrades, let us try to understand the phenomenon called financialization of the world economy which is largely responsible for the mayhem in the capitalist world, South Africa not exempted. This phenomenon is responsible for the increasing unemployment, rising personal and households’ debts and financial vulnerability, exposure to risks and uncertainties amongst the poorest of the poor.
The Khazanah research Institute has postulated that the last three decades have seen finance growing beyond its traditional role as a provider of capital for the productive economy to an industry on its own. The growth of the financial services sector has rapidly financialised households while ignoring productive sectors such as agriculture, and others.
This obviously is aiding the long crises of the capitalist’s economy.
Financialization is of course a part of speculative economy which has been very much part of the capitalist economy. No matter how much profit is gained from these speculative instruments such as stocks, bonds, share prices, currencies very little or nothing goes back to the productive sectors. The fact that financial profit has become more valuable than profit made in production has created a suction pump moving an ever-increasing share of capital towards finance, creating a self-reinforcing finacialisation.
The ultimate is the development of high frequency trading on the stock exchange, a computerised speculation giving the opportunity to capitalise on a price variation in split seconds. Speculative decisions about currencies, stocks, bonds, state debts or whichever financial instruments are nothing but bets, a casino that creates more and more financial mayhem for states and individuals.
Countries themselves are getting deeper into debts, debt traps if you like. In order to help the banks, they have to borrow from the financial markets, that is, from the very same banks to which they were giving money. The same countries debts/sovereign debts have become speculative financial products. Debt repayment is a must , failing to do so has consequences too ghastly to contemplate.
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In our country, the year 2024 will go into the annals of history as the most slippery year of our lifetime. The leader of the poorest of the poor has lost its majority presence in the hearts and minds of the poor. The African National Congress has lost its majority standing in the minds and hearts of the voters. (ANC 40%, DA 21% MKP 14%, EFF 9% and others 16%) The national general elections ushered in, the most difficult terrain of our struggle in the formation of the Government of National Unity.
It will be prudent to thank all the millions of South Africans who went to the polls in May 2024 to deepen the democratic agenda. And to further thank the country for having managed to run the election process so well.
All our members who went all the way to campaign and encourage all voters to cast their votes.
We have learned bitter lessons as the Alliance and the working masses of this country.
Comrades, we are of the view that the formation of Government of National Unity (GNU) was never our plan nor our intention. I also don’t believe that the ANC intended to go into the elections to end up with the GNU. If that was the case SADTU was never taken into confidence.
The cardinal question is why the glorious movement like the ANC did not, with some pro- poor policies succeed to galvanise society around its election manifesto. How did the slippage happen. What is it that we should have done and did not do.
According to our own analysis a lot has gone wrong in the last five years, and we woke up just before elections and hoped to clean the rot that was left fermenting for a period of five full years.
The answers to our problems are within ourselves not outside. We no longer have the luxury of time to continue apportioning blame to the over hundred years of apartheid misrule. Granted, our masses know that, they lived through apartheid years. Some lost their lives, some lost their land, their livestock and their futures but how do we account for the last thirty (30) years of democracy. The period in which we had the political power to change things.
How do we account for the collapse of Transnet, how do we account for the collapse of the Post Office, how do we account for the collapse of Sars, what about the collapse
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of ESKOM, SAA, Denel and other SOE’s, how do we account for the collapse of VBS, how do we account for the collapse of the municipalities in the provinces in which we govern, how do we account for the collapse of the water infrastructure in the metros,townships and villages, and how do we account for the rampant violent crime against business ( construction mafia’s & extortionists) and households, the proliferation of drugs in our streets, schools and universities, the rampant corruption and blatant theft of state resources, the lack of access roads in the rural areas.The shortage of medications in our hospitals and desks in our schools is nothing to ride home about.
Comrade Deputy President these are the questions that our black voters are asking, these are questions that our rural masses are asking. We can no longer have the arrogance of reminding our people that the ANC liberated them.
Yes, surely the ANC did.
The question is, was that a licence to steal, and live a life of opulence while our own people are suffering? Surely not. The backlash we received during the May 2024 general elections is a wake-up call to all of us. Let’s deal with these difficult questions.
Time is running out fast, 2026 is the year of Local Government elections. Judging from the Auditor General ‘s report much work still needs to be done to turn the state of our Municipalities and Metros around.
There are urgent tasks that need to be completed without fail to ready the ANC and our Alliance to contest successfully in the coming local government elections:
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Renewal of the ANC.
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Strengthening and remodelling of the Alliance.
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Strengthening COSATU ‘s collective efforts to reinvigorate the electorates ‘s desire to believe in the National Democratic Revolution.
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Uniting Cosatu’s affiliates, NEHAWU and SADTU included (- issues of poaching and collective bargaining arrogance)
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Build the SACP and swell its ranks to pursue the centrality of the working-class agenda.
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Deal decisively with institutionalised corruption at all levels.
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Ensure that Municipalities are the centres of excellence in service delivery.
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It is our duty as the working class to take our central role in the ANC and work towards getting the working-class agenda in the centre of this great movement.
The GNU will always be tested from time to time.
The ANC broadly agrees with the strategic direction and the pro-poor policies that the majority of the working people wants like National Health Insurance and the BELA bill which have been signed into law.
Comrades, SADTU must be ready to face the demon in DBE and fight to have education imperatives take the centre stage. We have always been proactive in pursuing education for all, but the new terrain is already giving us a fore-taste of the things to come within the GNU.
The Minister, Ms Gwarube must be given just FOUR Commandments to memorise, and we must read them aloud, to her, the following commandments:
Thou shall implement the BELA Act without fail.
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Thou shall love SADTU with your heart and your mind.
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Thou shall respect SADTU and honour it with all your heart and your mind
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Thou shall always consult SADTU
We are saying to the retrenchment of teachers, if minister Gwarube doesn’t listen to the mighty union, she will one day wake up from her slumber and find the following words in her office: mene, mene, tekel urpharsin.
Comrades, SADTU is under no threat whatsoever, we are still intact. We will continue to defend the gains we have made as the working class. We will continue to defend our members, our schools and our learners and our education.
The education sector is still beset with critical issues like poor infrastructure, poor sanitation, inadequate classrooms, insufficient staff establishment in our schools, learner dropouts, teenage pregnancies, violence in schools, learner suicide, poor connectivity is rural schools sharpening the digital divide between urban and rural schools and many other challenges that require collective efforts from the education sector, as a whole.
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Comrades, we run a successful campaign in our schools, “I am a School Fan” which has helped largely to deal with damage in schools, theft and vandalism. And it also promotes a spirit of oneness between learners, educators, parents and the community.
In the same power and spirit lets run other campaigns and place the agenda squarely in the hands of the GNU. Campaigns such as “Go Public and fund Public Education for all”. This resonates with our campaign on struggling for quality public education.
These campaigns will help in areas such as the staffing in public schools, building of schools’ infrastructure, building proper sanitation facilities, increasing safety and security in schools and many other areas of focus. Let’s continue to mobilise and do member service so that members of the union continue to believe in the power of the collective bargaining.
In conclusion , the National Democratic Revolution is facing mounting challenges from within. The challenges ranges from factionalism, tribalism, regionalism, lies and distortions.
The most single dangerous threat to our revolution is the betrayal of the revolution by institutionalised corruption and arrogance, allowed and aided by people masquerading as comrades who have access to the levers of power and proximity to the state resources.
They have mastered the art of good slogans, salutations and glib art of revolutionary terminologies. They have managed to get through structures and rub shoulders with the powerful. These are the real dangerous people who, if possible, must be dealt with decisively and without delay.
The triple challenges of factionalism, tribalism and regionalism are and will continue to characterize political allegiances and thus tear our movement apart. They must be nibbed in the bud. There is life after this Congress. Sadtu members want a strong and united organisation to deal with their needs. Lies ,gossips ,mud slinging and vilification of fellow comrades must be discouraged. Triumphalism must not be allowed to thrive under our watch.
On behalf the National Executive Committee, we wish you fruitful deliberations in this Congress. It is my pleasure and privilege to open this Congress. Long live Sadtu long live!