Fleisch, B. (2010). The politics of the governed: South African Democratic Teachers’ Union Soweto strike, June 2009. South African Review of Education, 16, 117-131.

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Public-Union Sector Politics and the Crisis of Education in South Africa

  AUTHORS: Moeketsi Letseka, Bongani Bantwini, Ethel King-McKenzie

  KEYWORDS: SADTU; Global Union Politics; Reengineering; South Africa; Teachers’ Strikes; Education Crisis

  JOURNAL NAME: Creative Education, Vol.3 No.7, November 21, 2012

  ABSTRACT: This paper reflects on public-sector unions in South Africa with a view to highlighting teacher unionization’s contribution to South Africa’s education crisis. South Africa’s teaching profession is highly unionized. The largest teacher union, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) is affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The latter is a partner in the ruling tripartite alliance that includes the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Worldwide most public-sector unions are known to prop up left-wing political organizations. SADTU is no exception. But this paper shows that SADTU organizes teachers at the expense of teaching and learning in a country whose education system has been described as “a crisis” and “a national disaster” whose schools are “dysfunctional”. The paper contemplates on the possibility of borrowing from business models to “redesign” or “reengineer” the country’s ailing education system into an efficient system.