Johannesburg - Controversial former Sadtu Soweto regional secretary Ronald Nyathi has been appointed as one of the top investigators in the Gauteng Department of Education.
The former South African Democratic Teachers Union Soweto regional secretary has been in the news in the past, mainly for disrupting schools in Soweto and other parts of Gauteng.
DA education spokesman Khume Ramulifho has described the appointment to the special investigations unit as a way to neutralise Nyathi.
Since his appointment on January 1, the former Sadtu official has been working on cases in Tshwane, Sedibeng, Ekurhuleni, Vaal and Gauteng West.
During his days at Sadtu, Nyathi and school principal Moss Senye led schoolteacher marches in Soweto and Joburg.
In 2011, the two threatened to shut down schools in Soweto unless Senye’s suspension was overturned and charges withdrawn.
Senye had been suspended for assaulting a pupil at Meadowlands Secondary School.
“We are of the view that the chairman (Senye) has been unfairly targeted by the Gauteng Department of Education. If you take Moss down, you must take us all down. We are giving them two weeks to sober up, to avoid a total shutdown,” said Nyathi late in 2011, addressing more than 1 000 teachers during a union mass meeting at Regina Mundi Church in Rockville.
Fifty-eight teachers who were accused of abandoning classrooms in support of Meadowlands High School principal Senye during his court appearances were served with warnings.
Then-Gauteng education MEC Barbara Creecy said teachers had been charged in disciplinary hearings with contravening section 18 of the Employment of Educators Act of 1998, while administrative staff members had been charged with contravening the Disciplinary Code and Procedure of the Public Service.
Nyathi began his teaching career in 1999 and, five years later, he was working full-time for Sadtu.
Ramulifho said on Monday: “We are worried about his history of disruptions in Soweto. We have reservations with him being in the department because of his role as a former union leader. Most of the instability in schools was caused by him. (Former) MEC Creecy managed to stabilise schools, and him being in the department might change all that.”
Ramulifho said Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi might have appointed Nyathi in the department to neutralise him and stop him disrupting teaching and learning in the province.
Department spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane rubbished the claims and said Nyathi actually applied for the position and was appointed after an interview process.
“Mr Nyathi met all the minimum requirements of the post as advertised,” she said.
School governing body unions are arranging a meeting with Lesufi to discuss the appointment.
Sekhonyane said the requirements for the post were that the candidate had a teaching qualification and at least seven years’ teaching experience. The candidate also had to be registered with the South African Council of Educators.
Tumi Ramasike, of the National Governing Bodies Association, said they were planning a meeting with Lesufi to discuss the appointment.
The Star