A showdown is looming between the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and the Limpopo Education Department over a plan to retrench so-called redundant teachers.

Sadtu regards the process as illegitimate, as no agreement has been reached yet on the criteria to be used in a process whereby all schools are required to declare the number of excess teachers on their staff. The union has instructed its members to frustrate the whole plan, by refusing to cooperate.

In a statement issued in Polokwane, Sadtu provincial secretary, Thamaga Morebudi, said the union was currently addressing mass gatherings of educators across the province, with the aim of staging a protest march.

"We have tried our best to work smoothly with the Head of Department on a number of issues, but have come to the painful decision to call on all our members not to cooperate in this retrenchment process", he said.

Sadtu is also adamant that Limpopo is the only province, which has not yet completed the national education department's countrywide Redeployment and Rationalisation plan. The union has appealed to the department to firstly give this issue its urgent attention.