Madam Deputy Speaker, the ANC allies, the teacher's trade union and the SA Democratic Teachers Union, Sadtu, continue to destroy the life chances of South Africa's poorest children. Really, this has been better illustrated than the public servant strike, which is currently under way. Sadtu allied teachers in Soweto began staying away from school the week before the strike began and at many schools around the country are still not back at work. Even worse than staying away, Sadtu members interfere with the constitutional rights of other teachers to work and of pupils to get education.
Sadtu members in the Vaal, armed with sticks, yesterday attacked schools and assaulted working teachers. This is not the first time that Sadtu members have been guilty of thuggish behaviour. In East London, in May, Sadtu members assaulted teachers who arrived at a district office to fetch exam papers. In one school they tore up the papers in front of the primary school pupils who were trying to write. They knew the exams would expose their failure to teach.
From the Eastern Cape to the Northern Cape to Bushbuckridge, Sadtu threatens to attack and kill school principals and their families if they try and make union members come to class on time. Yet nothing happens to these thugs.
This government may talk the talk, but when it comes to upsetting their political allies in Sadtu the ANC's need for election workers becomes more important than the future of South Africa's children.
As long as the ANC gives Sadtu a free pass to terrorise our children, parents, teachers and communities, this government's promise to fix education is doomed to failure. [Applause.]