Durban - The National Teachers Union (Natu) has hailed the contribution of the late Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi to the education sector.
The IFP founder passed away this past weekend and is expected to be laid to rest on Friday.
“Prince Buthelezi contributed immensely to education during his tenure as the Prime Minister of KwaZulu Government as he was instrumental in the establishment of teacher training institutions (colleges) and more than 6000 schools,” the union said.
It said teacher colleges produced a high crop of highly skilled and creative teachers who coped well under the difficult and under-resourced teaching environment.
It added that his administration was free of industrial actions since improvement of salaries happened automatically during an employee’s birth month.
Natu said it was the only teacher formation organised in the sector during that time and worked co-operatively with his government as employer.
“There was no shortage of teachers. Teacher colleges produced hundreds of teachers annually and they were appointed and placed in schools immediately after graduation. Human resource provisioning and processing of payments for teachers were expedited.
“Building of schools created work opportunities for many men and women and uplifted and empowered their communities.
“Through the rand-for-rand community collaboration programme, with limited budget from the national government, Prince Buthelezi built schools and roped in communities to own schools and thus there were no burglaries, vandalism and theft of school property that has become the order of the day nowadays. Education inspectors were always on the ground, visiting schools to monitor and support teaching and learning.
“As we celebrate the life of Prince Buthelezi, we wish to reiterate our call for an end of violence and vandalism in our schools. We will remember Prince Buthelezi as a leader who prioritised education above all,” it said.