The friction between the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) is set to deepen after the former resolved it would now organise in the territory of the latter despite the two unions belonging to one labour federation.
The intention was made public by Siyanda Zungu, chairperson of Nehawu in KwaZulu-Natal. He was addressing members of the union in Durban on Wednesday, where there is an ongoing provincial congress.
Enemy of the revolution
Introducing the topic, Zungu asked members who their enemy is in the revolution. The floor unanimously said “Sadtu” and burst into laughter. He said ever since the union was formed in 1987, the education sector was one of their terrains to organise. Even though Sadtu later encroached on it.
Zungu then gave a long history of the frictions between the two unions affiliated with Cosatu, an alliance partner of the ANC. He alleged that at some point, Sadtu sided with the Public Servants Association and became the “mouthpiece of the employer”.
He also cited the April 2023 case where Sadtu took Cosatu to court to challenge the decision to support the South African Communist Party to contest the elections outside the banner of the ANC.
“In the revolution, we used to know that the enemy are the DA and the FF+. Because they are collaborating with the imperialist enemy and they work together. So they are the mouthpiece of the enemy. When we raise issues that will benefit us, they oppose it. It is not them speaking but the enemy.
Mouthpiece of the enemy
“At some point, we had the enemy, which was the Inkatha Freedom Party. Because it was the mouthpiece of the enemy,” Zungu started on the topic.
He said there was a strike in 2023 and Nehawu members were called hooligans. And Sadtu, its sister union, said the employer does not have money to meet the demands on the table.
“How did they know that the employer did not have money? They even tried some tricks to collapse our strike. Even after our victory, they joined hands with the PSA so that the victory that was going to even benefit their members must be reversed…
“They were becoming the mouthpiece of the employer. And they were positioning themselves as the enemy of the workers. In this struggle, they were becoming the enemy of the struggle that we are pursuing,” Zungu told the congress.
Hostility
He also recalled an incident where he said Sadtu was hostile to him donating shoes to needy learners in Newcastle.
“We received calls, and we were told not to come because your sister union has shut down the area. You can’t come here.”
