IOL News reports that the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has joined hands with other trade unions and organisations to declare outrage against the Western Cape Government and the MEC of Education, David Maynier, over what they call “its unilateral draconian decision to cut over 2,000 teacher posts”.

The federation held a briefing on Monday where it announced plans for a stay-away, and called on all workers to support protest action set to take place on 26 February, which will coincide with Premier Alan Winde’s State of the Province Address in Beaufort West on that day. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) announced in August its plan to cut approximately 2,400 teachers from its payroll, which came into effect at the start of the year. According to the WCED, the decision came after they received only 64% of the cost of the nationally negotiated wage agreement, leaving the province to fund the remaining 36%. This meant a budget shortfall of R3.8 billion over the next three years. Cosatu’s Malvern de Bruyn said they were taking the stay away action after a failure to resolve the dispute at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). "We want the provincial government and the MEC of Education to change their mindset and review the decision and reinstate those workers whose contract was terminated," he explained. De Bruyn argued that the department was not open and honest “as there is money in the fiscus”. Premier Alan Winde said that they respected organised labour’s right to embark on industrial action, but “as I’ve always said it is counter-productive to protest during the working week when we are doing everything we can to kickstart economic growth”. He called on Cosatu to work with the provincial government to motivate for more funding for critical provincial services like education, healthcare and social services.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Theolin Tembo at IOL News

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