The Star reports that data released by Department of Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga shows that close to 210 teachers across the country lost their lives due to coronavirus, but a union has disputed her figures.  

National Teachers Union (Natu) president Allen Thompson said:  “Our own records indicate that more than 400 teachers have passed away due to Covid-19.  It may be that provincial education departments did not record some deaths as coronavirus-related.”  Replying to parliamentary questions by the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Nomsa Tarabella-Marchesi, Motshekga also revealed that 44 non-teaching staff and 12 learners had died due to the virus.  Tarabella-Marchesi had asked specifically about the total number of learners and teachers with comorbidities who had died from Covid-19 in each province.  She had also sought details on the specific illness and/or conditions concerned.  But Motshekga only gave statistics on Covid-19 related fatalities, saying data did not specify if the deceased had existing conditions.  Provincial education departments declined the applications of roughly 5,000 teachers who had asked to work from home on grounds that they had comorbidities, another set of data showed.  Roughly 22,000 applications were approved.  This cohort of teachers has since gone back to school in line with the move to lockdown level 1.  It is not known how many teachers, learners and support staff contracted Covid-19.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Bongani Nkosi on page 2 of The Star of 28 September 2020

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