ANC’s alliance partners call for education minister Siviwe Gwarube to be fired over Bela Act boycott

The ANC’s  alliance partners have called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube for failing to attend the signing of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act.

The leaders of Cosatu and the South African Communist Party (SACP) called for Gwarube’s head during the 10th elective congress of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, being held in Johannesburg.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the congress, SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila said Ramaphosa should have fired her for defying him.

“She defied him on the instructions of the Democratic Alliance. He should have fired her on the same day that she defied him after he signed [the Act]. Why can’t he do that?” he asked.

“If they [the DA] say they support him as the president, and he must lead, he must take appropriate decisions and he must not be undermined in this way.”

Hours before the signing ceremony, Gwarube issued a statement saying she had written to Ramaphosa to notify him that she could not attend the ceremony until her concerns regarding the Bill were addressed.

Gwarube said she had always been, and remained, opposed to the Bill in its current form and has requested that Ramaphosa to refer it back to parliament for reconsideration regarding section 79 of the Constitution.

Instead, the president agreed to hold the implementation of two contentious sections of the Act for 90 days while discussions take place around how to address the impasse.

Gwarube has undertaken to implement the rest of the Bill while this process takes place.

Mapaila said, if he was president, Gwarube would have not kept her position because ministers are accountable to the president, not their respective parties.

He also supported Sadtu’s decision not to invite Gwarube to the congress as she had “no interest in the public, but the DA”.

“It’s okay that she’s not here; we don’t care about her,” Mapaila said.

He said Gwarube could not afford to ignore Sadtu as it is a major stakeholder in education and the biggest union in the sector.

“She has already started setting up some government advisory groups excluding Sadtu because she wants chaos in education. She will not get that. Our comrades will work hard in education to guarantee that children of the working class continue to receive better education.”

Mapaila said they would be working with Sadtu to defend the implementation of the Bela Act on the ground.

The general secretary, who has been heavily critical of the government of national unity, said that, while the ANC spoke about “optimism” regarding the multi-party coalition government, there had already been “reversals” in its first 100 days.

Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said it would have been incorrect for Sadtu to invite Gwarube due to her disrespect for the president in boycotting the signing of the Act and that the union’s frustration was understandable.

“I don’t think that Sadtu did anything wrong by not inviting the minister because, if you have a minister that is disregarding the president, what would she come here and say? 

“The Bela Act is very critical and central to the work of educators in our country, to the lives of South Africans, particularly the black child, and the transformation of the education system.

“You have a minister that says, ‘I’m not available for the signing of an Act by the president that I’m accountable to because my political party is in opposition to elements of that Act.

“What kind of policy would she be coming to articulate, as a minister, when she is unable to account to the president? One would have expected that she would come here and tell us why the Bela Act is important and how we can strengthen it.”

Losi said Gwarube should not ignore Sadtu “because the only way to take South Africa forward is when all parties are able to sit at the table and listen to one another”.

One of the delegates at the congress — who declined to be named — said Gwarube was not welcome as they felt she was working against them over Bela.

“The DA, in their manifesto last year, had a clause that was dealing specifically with Sadtu. We didn’t take that lightly. She did not go to the signing of the Bela Bill. To us, the Bela Bill has been addressing the issues that have existed since 1976.”

The delegate said they would push to implement the bill from the ground.

“The Bela Bill is there to address the challenges we face as teachers.”

ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile told journalists Gwarube should have been at the Sadtu conference to look at the challenges teachers are facing, help them and support them.

“Teachers are a pillar in our society and we must not take that for granted. In the past, teaching was just a simple career. It is actually an important career,” Mashatile said.