WCED stuck between national budget cuts and union stubbornness

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED)is stuck between a rock and a hard place. While the national Treasury has severely cut the provincial budget to offset their inability to cut the national public sector wages, the SA Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) has refused to accept the necessary cuts imposed upon the provinces, and pushed back at the WCED’s attempts to establish fiscal discipline.

SADTU is a subsidiary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), a member of the ruling Tripartite Alliance, together with the ANC and South African Communist Party.

The recent move will significantly destabilise the Liberal opposition’s budgetary process in the Western Cape, the only province it governs. They are forced to make R248 million in cuts under current conditions.

WCED head Brent Walters, in the recent budget circular, outlined stringent measures, citing the exclusion of substitute posts, excluding maternity leave scenarios. Acting appointments against vacant substantive School Management Team (SMT) posts, excluding principal posts, will not be facilitated.

Additionally, the filling of all office-based public service posts will be frozen, with activation limited to critical positions upon approval. These measures, effective from April 1, 2024, aim to stabilize the affordable post landscape within the confines of cost containment.

SADTU’s provincial secretary, Sibongile Kwazi, expressed dissatisfaction, and contends that substitutes being available only for educators on maternity leave could lead to unmanageable class sizes, especially in schools unable to afford substitutes. The circular’s silence on educators on incapacity leave and ill-health retirement raised concerns about the potential impact on academic outcomes.

Of course, SADTU was not concerned as to how else to make up for the funding shortfall.

The disagreement extends to the formal vacancy list for filling Post Level 1 vacancies, with SADTU proposing an alternative approach through Section 6A of the Employment of Educators Act, which governs the “first appointment or appointment after break in service of educator”.

The section requires all appointments for the filling of vacancies by teachers who have stood down for a period of time greater than a year to be run through the department heads. This imposes a significant paperwork requirement.

Education MEC David Maynier attributed his actions to a substantial R716.4 million cut from the National Treasury, forcing a realignment of priorities and inevitably impacting plans for learner expansion and infrastructure development.

As the WCED walks this budgetary tightrope, the intersection of financial constraints and educational imperatives underscores the delicate balance required to navigate the challenges ahead.