Sne Masuku

Sne Masuku

Traffic was disrupted yesterday when hundreds of South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) members marched to the provincial education department in Pietermaritzburg.

A memorandum containing teachers' grievances over the impending docking of salaries had to be received by police after education officials did not pitch up to receive it.

Heavily-armed police kept a close watch on the proceedings, which were incident-free.

Proceedings at the provincial legislature, where the budget speech was being delivered, was not affected.

The teachers are demanding that the department do away with the "no work, no pay" deductions scheduled from March until June for the days that they were on strike last year.

Chairman of the union's south region, Mbuyiseni Mathonsi, said union officials in the eThekwini region who took part in the march were demanding that the department provide them with a list of teachers who were on strike and whose salaries would be docked.

The department's spokesman was not available for comment.