The Department of Education in Gauteng has disputed recent media reports that it has been retrenching teachers. MEC Panyaza Lesufi together with the Head of Department, Edward Mosuwe, on Sunday briefed the media in Johannesburg about the department’s readiness for the new school year.
Mosuwe says teachers were merely redeployed to schools that have increased their learner numbers.
“The Department of Education in the province has not retrenched even a single teacher. There are additional new 500 vacant posts that have been made available to help us absorb and deal with new pressures that may arise. But here’s what had happened in the process – where schools had lost or their enrollments had gone down, we’ll have to take those teachers and redeploy them to where learner numbers would have gone up and that’s the whole story about post-provisioning,” says Mosuwe.
However, Lesufi says he has received a letter from trade union Solidarity threatening to take the department to court over the redeployment of teachers.
“My message is very simple, bring it on, we’re ready for you. We’re not going to be scared or threatened by people who believe that only the privilege few must get an educator. Those that don’t have educators must not be given the necessary sorry in terms of additional educators. So there are schools in privileged areas that the numbers have dwindled, so we’re going to remove educators there and take them to where the numbers have increased, that’s natural justice,” says Lesufi.
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