Build One SA (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane on Monday led hundreds of unemployed teachers through the streets of Pretoria on their way to deliver a memorandum containing a list of grievances to the office of Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
The protestors sought to highlight the struggles of unemployment faced by qualified educators in the country. This after BOSA entered into an agreement with Unemployed Educators Movement of South Africa to march to the minister’s office.
During the march, Maimane alleged that there are many schools across the country that do not have teachers.
Despite the latest figures from Statistics South Africa showing that the official unemployment rate has dropped to 32.9% in the third quarter, compared with 33.9% in the second quarter, Maimane said there are many qualified teaches who still find themselves without employment.
“We all know that education is in a crisis in South Africa, our young people start school but do not finish it,” he said.
“It is a common cause that the ratio of teachers per class in many school is one to 70, this despite [the fact] that we have vacancies for over 24 000 teachers who are sitting at home, some of them have not [even] been remunerated for helping as teacher assistants during the Covid-19 period.
“The budget for the Department of Education is one of the highest, and therefore I urge that we fix the education process in the country, we have to ensure that ultimately that budget is used most effectively.”
We’re outside the department of basic education to hand over a set of demands to the minister. pic.twitter.com/q3ZIvgK4AF
— BOSA (@BuildOneSA) December 5, 2022
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