MAKHADO – Their employer froze contributions to their medical and housing allowances in 2001, and now, as the burden has been shifted to them, members of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) have resumed with their demonstration at the Circuit Office of the Department of Education in Makhado this week.

Sadtu regional secretary in the Vhembe District, Mr Given Rafapa, said that the salary deadlock with their employer, the Department of Public Service and Administration, led them to embark on industrial action. Rafapa said that as a union, they are demanding an 8,5% salary increment, while their employer is promising to put a 5,4% salary increment on the table.

“Labour has tabled a revised demand of 7% on condition that salary backlogs to educational practitioners be paid as a matter of extreme urgency. We are not going to enter into a multiterm agreement, but we could only enter into a one-year consensus, provided that there is practical movement from the part of the employer,” he grumbled. He told Mirror that, as Sadtu, they are also further demanding a universal housing subsidy increment to all educators up to an amount of R200 000, as well as another universal allowances to all teachers to access subsidy whether each member holds a bond or not.