Johnathan Paoli
THE South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has proposed legislation to force government officials to enrol their children in public schools.
Saftu General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, said cabinet ministers, premiers, MECs, district directors and principals of the schools should taste their own medicine.
“In the Loyiso Secondary school in the Eastern Cape, there are 618 learners, but there are only 10 classrooms and this means that on average there are 61 learners per classroom and of course, you know that this is not always evenly spread across the grade,” Vavi said.
Vavi’s comment comes in the light of a recent report by the Public Protector which exposed the problematic state of some schools, including overcrowding that has seen almost 170 learners crammed into one classroom.
According to Vavi, private medical aid schemes and cards of government management should be radically transformed and that the employees and their families should immerse themselves in total dedication to the people in the form of working in hospitals and other public spaces.
Saftu was proposing that there must be legislation that will be presented in this session of Parliament, certainly before the 2024 elections, that will force all the senior government officials, from cabinet ministers, premiers, MECs, and district directors up to the principals of the schools, to take their own children to public schools so that they can taste the medicine that ordinary working-class parents are tasting in public schools, Vavi said.
He said that the general call Saftu was making was for high ranking government officials not to send their kids to well-run private schools and do nothing about the conditions of public schools, in particular in rural areas.
“It is time those who are responsible must take their own kids to these schools, and we’re not only limiting this to public schools, as in the context of the introduction of national health insurance, the government must do likewise,” Vavi said.
Saftu expressed its deepest disappointment at the state of conditions after 29 years of democracy.
In addition, Saftu has called for the boycott, divestment and sanctions against the Israeli government, stating that silence will mean consent to the murder of the people of Palestine.
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