Pretoria - Police struggled to control thousands of
striking teachers' union members at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on
Wednesday.
Protesters pushed through police barriers in an attempt to
enter the buildings, but to no avail.
Its security doors remained closed.
Calling for the resignations of Basic Education Minister
Angie Motshekga and her director general Bobby Soobrayan, protesters sang songs
calling for them to "voertsek” [scram] and "hamba [go]".
They also wielded placards reading: "Angie doesn't
know anything", and "Away with declaring education an essential
service".
One protester shouted: "This can be another
Marikana. We don't care."
While tourists visiting the Union Buildings used cameras
and cellphones to photograph the protest, the vendors outside packed up their
wares.
A police helicopter hovered over the crowd.
The protesters soon moved away from the buildings and
back to the lawns.
Earlier, Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) president
Sidumo Dlamini said structural deficiencies in the South African education
system had to be urgently addressed.
Calls for minister’s resignation
Cosatu supported the calls for the resignations of
Motshekga and Soobrayan, he told journalists earlier.
"The protest is out of concern by Sadtu that our
education in this country needs a lot of fixing," said Dlamini.
"There is no time for pussy-footing. We have to deal
with the mud schools in the rural areas and the low wages.
"We have to deal with the system. It is a structural
apartheid system that still exists in our education system. It has denigrated
the African child to the periphery," he said.
Cosatu hoped government would "get to its knees and
speak to Sadtu".
Sadtu expected about 25 000 of its members to take part
in the Pretoria march and another to Parliament, in Cape Town on Wednesday.
"The marches are meant to increase the pressure
on... Motshekga and... Soobrayan to resign from their... positions, in defence
of collective bargaining and promotion of quality public education," Sadtu
said in a statement.
Sadtu members have been on a national go-slow since
pupils returned from the Easter holiday.
The department said teachers who joined the protest march
would face disciplinary action and that the no-work, no-pay rule would apply.
