“Mobilising the consciousness and uniting revolutionary professionals in strengthening foundational learning and functional skills, to advance inclusive and sustainable economic growth in pursuance of socialist society”
Comrades, teachers, revolutionaries of SADTU!
It is good to be in Kimberly. This is the land of resistance. This is the soil that raised fighters. When we speak of liberation, we do not speak of empty words. We speak of the Northern Cape and North West.
Here, the people fought colonialism with spears. They fought apartheid with strikes and schools. This province gave us giants. We salute the late Premier Bushy Maape – a principal in these streets of Kuruman. He did not wait for freedom. He taught it. In his classroom, he built fighters. After school, he built the ANC underground. That is the SADTU tradition: teach by day, organise by night.
We remember Moses Kotane from Pella, the son of a farmworker who became the General Secretary of the SACP. We remember Mittah Seperepere, a teacher and leader of our people. We remember the diamond workers of Kimberley and the mineworkers of Kathu. They bled for this country. You, SADTU, are their children. You carry their spear.
Comrades, your theme is not a slogan. It is a battle plan. Let us break it down, simple and clear.
“Mobilising the consciousness” means we must wake up the mind of every teacher. The classroom is not neutral. Every lesson either keeps the child a slave to poverty, or it frees the child to fight for a new society. A teacher must know, you are not just teaching the alphabet. You are teaching the working class to rule.
“Uniting revolutionary professionals” means SADTU must unite all teachers. Whether you teach Grade R or Matric, whether you are in Mothibistad or Springbok, you are one. The bosses divide us by subject, by school, by union. We must unite as professionals who serve the people, not the profits.
“Strengthening foundational learning and functional skills” means we must fix the basics. A child who cannot read at age 10 is a child locked out of the economy. A matriculant who cannot use a computer is a worker left behind by the 4th Industrial Revolution. We must teach so that a child can work, build, and lead.
“To advance inclusive and sustainable economic growth” means education must create jobs for all, not tenders for a few. We do not want growth for Sandton only. We want growth for Galeshewe, for Pampierstad. Growth that puts food on the table for the poor.
“In pursuance of socialist society” means we are not here to patch capitalism. We are here to build socialism. It means a child’s future is not decided by her parent’s wallet. That is why we teach. That is why we organise.
Now let us face reality. South Africa is at war. It is a class war.
Unemployment is 43.7%. For youth, it is 62%. That means 12 million people are without work. That means 12 million people have no dignity. In every township, our children are sitting at corners with CVs in plastic bags. They have lost hope.
Poverty is a crime scene. Half the country goes to bed hungry. The gap between rich and poor is the worst in the world. In Sandton, they drink champagne. In Galeshewe, they drink from dirty taps, if the taps work.
Socio-economic crisis in the Northern Cape Here in the Northern Cape, the crisis bites harder. This is a province of wealth. Diamonds, iron ore, manganese, solar. Billions come out of this soil. But what stays?
Mines close without warning. Khumani, Kolomela, Sishen – when the price drops, workers are dumped. Towns die. Unemployment here is above 40%. Young people run to Gauteng because there are no factories here.
Our farms export grapes and beef to Europe. But the farmworker earns R180 a day. He cannot buy the food he produces. Our communities have no water. The Vaal River is polluted. Clinics have no medicine. Schools have no toilets. This is not freedom. This is a betrayal of the Freedom Charter.
Teachers: The frontline of the revolution Comrades, who will break these chains? It is you. The teacher.
You take the child of an unemployed mother and give her the power to read. You take the son of a retrenched mineworker and give him maths to become an artisan. Education is the only weapon that can defeat poverty in one generation.
But we see your suffering. You teach 70 learners in a class built for 30. The roof falls in. The wind blows through broken windows. You buy chalk from your own pocket. You are a teacher, a nurse, a social worker, a police officer. And still, posts are not filled.
What must be done? Hire more teachers now. Build more schools now. One learner, one desk, one textbook, one teacher. Stop blaming teachers for the crisis. Give them the tools and watch them change the world.
Smash austerity – fund education!
Comrades, the number one enemy of education is Treasury. Budget cuts are bullets aimed at our children.
They freeze posts. They cut scholar transport, so our children walk 15 kilometres in the dark. They cut school meals, so children faint in class. They say “there is no money”. But there is money for jets. There is money for blue lights. There is money for corruption.
COSATU says: Away with austerity! Education is not a cost. It is the future. Every rand cut from education is a rand stolen from the working class. We demand a People’s Budget. Tax the rich. Tax the mines. Fund our schools. If you can bail out SAA, you can bail out SADTU.
Cdes, Let me speak briefly on Organisational matters including our immediate important Campaign/s.
1. Organisational Issues of the Federation
Comrades, the strength of COSATU lies in strong, united affiliates like SADTU. But we face serious organisational challenges across the federation:
1. Membership & Servicing: We must defend every member and organise the unorganised. Teachers are at the frontline of austerity, and only a strong union can protect them.
2. Unity & Discipline: Our power comes from acting as one. Internal divisions, poor governance, and factionalism weaken us against the bosses and the state. We must take decisions that build unity from the shopfloor up.
3. Activism & Leadership: Shop stewards and leaders must be rooted in the workplace, politically sharp, and accountable. The federation is only as strong as its structures on the ground.
COSATU is working with its Affiliates which includes SADTU to strengthen its organisational capacity as per the 14th National Congress Resolution on Building Organisational Machinery (Organisational Renewal).
The Congress resolved that we must establish Commissions to deal with strategic priorities defined by resolutions and we have established these commissions which are:
1.Organisation and Campaigns,
2.Bargaining and Workplace Transformation and
3.Education and Gender Commission.
Cdes we of the view that when teachers are organised, the whole working class is stronger.
2. National Campaign: High Cost of Living – 19 June National Strike
Comrades, I want to speak directly to the campaign that will define the next period: COSATU’s National Action against the High Cost of Living on Friday, 19 June 2026.
This is not just a COSATU issue. This is a societal crisis:
1. To Workers: Food, fuel, electricity, transport costs are destroying take-home pay. A teacher’s salary today buys less than it did last year. Workers are going into debt just to survive month-end.
2. To Society: The poor and working class are being pushed deeper into poverty. Children go to school hungry. Clinics run out of medicine. The social wage is collapsing while the rich get richer.
3. To Government & Business: We are saying “enough”. Government must intervene with price controls, tax relief for the poor, and investment in public services. Big business must stop profiteering from this crisis.
Cdes, other campaigns include NHI, DEFENSE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAING, MEROTORIUM ON RETRENCHMENT, REVIEW OF MEDICAL AIDS PRICING (GEMS )
On 19 June 2026 COSATU, together with affiliates like SADTU and communities, will take to the streets. We will picket Treasury, government departments, and big business. We will hand over demands. This must be a national show of force.
SADTU Northern Cape and across all provinces has a special role. Teachers are trusted leaders in every town and villages. We need your structures, your members, and your voice to mobilise communities. When teachers march, parents and learners listen.
Comrades, this Congress must leave with two mandates:
1. Strengthen SADTU organisationally so we win at the workplace.
2. Mobilise 100% for 19 June so we win in society.
The cost-of-living crisis will not be solved in boardrooms. It will be solved in the streets, through worker unity and mass action. COSATU stands with SADTU, and SADTU stands with the people.
Our other concerns of NSFAS, TVETS and SETAS.
Fix NSFAS, open the doors of learning
Our children pass matric. They have the marks. But they stay home. Why? NSFAS is broken.
Money comes in December for February. Students sleep at taxi ranks. Corruption eats the funds. The middleman gets rich while the student gets nothing.
We say: Fix NSFAS or close it! Pay students on time. Pay them directly. Remove the tender vultures. And expand free education. The child of a domestic worker in Kuruman must walk into university like the child of a minister. Education is a right, not a loan.
Rebuild TVETs and clean the SETAs
Comrades, we need skills, not speeches. Our TVET Colleges are collapsing. Workshops have machines from 1994. Lecturers are on contracts. Students graduate with no jobs because the college has no link to industry.
We must turn TVETs into production centres. Every TVET must be adopted by a mine, a farm, a factory, a solar plant. Learn today, work tomorrow.
The SETAs are worse. They are piggy banks for the connected. Billions disappear in “leadership training” for friends. Meanwhile, workers are told “you don’t have skills” before they are retrenched.
COSATU demands: Arrest the SETA thieves! Clean the SETAs now! Every cent must train an unemployed youth, a retrenched worker, a woman in the village. We need solar technicians, not tenderpreneurs. We need welders, not workshop consultants.
Education for the 4th Industrial Revolution and AI Comrades, the world has changed. AI is here. Robots are here. If our curriculum does not change, our children will be slaves to machines owned by others.
From Grade R, we must teach coding like we teach reading. Teach data like we teach history. Teach green energy like we teach geography. We must overhaul education from basic to tertiary.
A socialist society needs workers who can control technology, not be controlled by it. The mine of the future is automated. The farm of the future uses drones. Will our children run those machines, or will they clean the offices of those who do? SADTU must lead this revolution in the classroom.
There are challenges across the NC provinces, across it’s five districts
1 Class room overcrowding , leaner administrative and unplaced students ,late registration , Vandalism, schools facing cable theft, Safety of educators during school hours, scholar transport challenges , shortage of educators in school
Build a strong SADTU – unity is power
SADTU, you are the spear of education. But a spear must be sharp. Every teacher must be inside SADTU. If you are not organised, the Department will eat you alive.
We call on all progressive teachers: Join SADTU. We call on PEO and other unions: The working class is bleeding. We cannot afford division. Come home. One industry, one union. That is how we win.
Build and defend a strong COSATU
Comrades, SADTU is not an island. You are part of COSATU. When a teacher is protected, a nurse is protected. When SADTU strikes, the mineworker strikes with you.
We need SADTU to defend COSATU. Defend collective bargaining. Defend the right to strike. Defend our pension money from thieves. The bosses want COSATU weak so they can pay you peanuts. A strong SADTU means a strong COSATU. A strong COSATU means workers have power.
Rebuild the Alliance, fix the state
Comrades, we need a strong Alliance. We need an ANC that returns to the Freedom Charter, not to factional battles. We need an SACP that is in the factories and classrooms, not only in conferences.
The Alliance must fix the state. We need a state that delivers water, not excuses. A state that builds trains, not overheads. A state that creates jobs through industrialisation, not through cadre deployment.
We must grow the economy. We must take back Eskom, Transnet, and Prasa from criminals. We must build factories. We must give land to the people. No worker must be unemployed in a country so rich.
International solidarity
Comrades, our struggle is global. We cannot be free while others are in chains.
We stand with Cuba. 60 years of US blockade because they chose socialism. We stand with Palestine. Children are killed in schools. If a teacher is not safe in Gaza, no teacher is safe.
An injury to one is an injury to all. SADTU must be internationalist. Teach our children that solidarity is not charity. It is survival.
SADTU comrades, go back to your branches with fire. Go back to your schools as commissars, fight for Bela, for NHI, Employment equity ,for safety at the work place
Your theme tells you what to do: Mobilise consciousness. Unite as revolutionaries. Teach the basics. Build skills. Fight for socialism.
The Northern Cape gave us Bushy Maape, a principal who became a Premier. Now produce 10,000 Maapes. Produce teachers who do not just pass learners, but produce fighters.
We are not here to beg the bosses. We are here to remove them. We are not here to manage poverty. We are here to end it
We need a united SADTU to unite all unions under one sector, one union, one country one federation.
We wish this congress engaging debate and clear resolutions , elect leaders who will be available for workers , leaders who will build SADTU
Forward with SADTU! Forward with COSATU! Forward to socialism!
Amandla! Matla!
Socialism is the future – build it now!