The National Teachers' Union (Natu) took
the KwaZulu-Natal education
department to court last year, after it docked the salaries of 27 000
teachers. It claimed the teachers had not participated in the strike.
The Durban Labour Court
ruled in favour of the teachers last year, and the Supreme Court of Appeal
recently upheld that ruling.
However, Sadtu provincial secretary Mbuyiseni Mathonsi said on
Tuesday that he had evidence that 10 000 Natu members participated in the
strike.
"In August 2010, I was at the SABC on an education
programme with Natu spokesman Allen Thompson. We were both calling on our
members to join the strike," Mathonsi said.
He said that as principals of schools, they knew Natu members
were not at school during the strike.
"It [Natu] claims that it never served any notice for the
strike action. The association could not serve notice because it's not an
accredited union," he said.
Mathonsi alleged that Natu embarked on an unprotected strike and
he called for its members to be dismissed as prescribed by the law.
Sadtu planned to strike in March if the department of education
did not meet its demands, he said.
"We are going to fight for the reimbursement of our members
and we are not going to waste money by going to court, but will go on
strike," he said.
Mathonsi said the union was demanding, among other things, that
the education department pay teaching assistants what they were owed, repay its
members the money docked from their salaries before end of this week, and
withdraw letters suggesting further deductions.
"We call for the department to pay rural allowances to all
rural based teachers before February 15, 2012.
We call for the department of education as well as finance department to begin
to pay for accommodation for all workers in rural areas," Mathonsi said.