Johannesburg - Expelled and suspended members of the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) have resolved to form a trade union which will be open to all public sector workers, the Mail&Guardian reported on Saturday.
The splinter group's national co-ordinating committee met in Johannesburg on Friday and resolved to form the non-aligned trade union, the publication reported on its website.
“It will not have limitations. Anybody that is employed in the public sector should be able to join,” the group's co-ordinator, Paul Mbele, was quoted as saying.
Mbele, a school principal, was expelled from Sadtu in 2012 after being found guilty of mismanagement and misappropriation of school funds at a disciplinary hearing.
Another co-ordinator for the splinter group, Jihad Seonya, said there was a demand for a new union.
“We’re not proving to anybody that this is the power that we can build. We’re merely responding to the outcry of members on the ground,” he said.
Seonya was the deputy secretary of Sadtu in the Free State before his suspension earlier this year for organising a meeting, which was addressed by expelled Sadtu president Thobile Ntola.
Ntola claimed he was removed for allowing Congress of SA Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi to speak at a union gathering in the Eastern Cape last year.
At the time, Vavi had been suspended for having an affair with a junior employee. His suspension was lifted earlier this year. - Sapa