Madam Deputy Speaker, the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, Sadtu, has proclaimed its "commitment to quality learning and teaching campaign and to improving quality public education by defending the education budget". Yet, Sadtu undermines this very commitment they make by sometimes encouraging teachers to go on strike during crucial exam times in order to try to force government to bend to their demands.
Sadtu's links to the ruling party may have given the union a sense of self- importance that it uses to hold the education sector to ransom and to try to take over the department's role. Like other unions in our country, their claims of representing the interests of their members are a disguise they use to protect their own interests. The pupils feel these strikes acutely because they either sit in class with no teachers, or are forced to stay at home due to the sometimes violent disruptions allegedly caused by Sadtu members. One wonders how many children's education has been sacrificed at the altar of unionist interests. I thank you.