The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) in the North West has condemned the violence and assaults on teachers in the province.
This comes after two women educators from Dingateng and Mathateng Primary Schools were allegedly attacked and assaulted on Wednesday by some of the community members around Masamane village due to illegal appointments of staff.
In a statement, Sadtu said that the two educators were attacked by community members on their way to school over allegations of incorrect appointments of support staff at the primary schools.
Community members reportedly stopped children and teachers from going to school on Tuesday.
“We condemn this barbaric act with the contempt it deserves. As Sadtu, we are perturbed by these incidents which seek to undermine the profession and humiliate our teachers,” it said.
“We reiterate the union’s position through its ‘I am a School Fan’ campaign which, among others, denounces violence in our schools and appeals to communities to desist from taking out their frustrations on schools and educators.”
Instead of attacking the educators, the educators union said the role of the community should be to protect them and form part of the solutions that would avoid such incidents and not be perpetrators of violence against them.
It further called on the law enforcement agencies to investigate the matter and firm action to be taken against the perpetrators.
The call was also made to the Department of Education to provide psychological support to the affected educators.
The union requested that an investigation into the allegations of incorrect appointments of support staff at the school be conducted.
IOL