Teach or get out, MEC tells teacher-councillors

"You can't have two full-time jobs"

TEACHERS who have been appointed as full-time councillors should resign from their education posts, says KwaZulu-Natal's education MEC.

"We expect all teachers who have been appointed as full-time councillors to resign, because you can't have two full-time jobs," Senzo Mchunu told reporters in Durban yesterday.

The SA Democratic Teachers Union last month asked Mchunu to give all teacher-councillors unpaid leave for the duration of their municipal term.

But Mchunu said only part-time councillors who were also teachers should be allowed to keep their teaching posts.

Sadtu spokesperson Nomusa Cembi said the call for teachers who are also councillors to resign did not reflect the national picture: "It was Sadtu's KZN call only and has not been discussed at national level."

KwaZulu-Natal has more than 2,000 councillors and Sadtu estimates more than 60 percent are teachers. The majority are not full-time employees.