Motshekga says SADTU call for her to resign is regrettable

The South African Democratic Teachers' Union's (Sadtu) call for Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to resign is regrettable, the department said on Tuesday.

"The minister of basic education is disappointed at the utterances made by the leadership of Sadtu that she must resign," spokesman Panyaza Lesufi said in a statement.

"The minister finds the stance taken by Sadtu unfortunate; the posture and tone, regrettable."

Sadtu embarked on a go slow on Tuesday, when pupils returned to school after the Easter holidays.

The called for Motshekga to resign, claiming she had failed to implement a collective agreement for an increase in the remuneration of markers of national examinations.

Sadtu also demanded the resignation of the director general of the department.

Motshekga told reporters on Tuesday that she had yet to be briefed on the affect of the go slow in schools, but said: "I am seriously bothered."

On April 7, 2011, a collective agreement was entered into under the auspices of the Education Labour Relations Council to improve the remuneration of national exam markers, Lesufi said.

The agreement was introduced to align the collective bargaining processes with a gazette.

However, some of the tariffs in the collective agreement were in conflict with the gazette.

The error was picked up and communicated to the unions, and it was agreed that the agreement could not be implemented.

The error would have cost the provinces an additional R700 million, which was not in their budgets.

"The senior manager and middle manager responsible for the error were disciplined and given final warnings for their negligence in this matter," said Lesufi

The unions accepted in principle that a bona fide error had occurred, and an addendum to the collective agreement was signed on December 18, 2011.

However, Sadtu later failed to attend meetings arranged to discuss the matter, said Lesufi.

"Sadtu rejected various offers made by the department to find a solution to this matter.

"The union's position on this matter has left the department with no option but to withdraw from the dispute it had lodged to clarify the validity of the agreement," he said.

The matter has been brought before the High Court in Pretoria and will be heard in August.