HUNDREDS of KwaZulu-Natal teachers recently inaugurated as councillors want the Education Department to grant them unpaid leave for the duration of their municipal term.

"We have asked the MEC (Senzo Mchunu) to consider granting them unpaid leave until they finish their term," said SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary Mbuyiseni Mathonsi.

According to Sadtu and the National Teachers Union (Natu), about 60 percent of more than 2,000 newly elected councillors are teachers.

Provincial cooperative governance department spokesperson Mthatheni Mabaso said policy had been tightened and full-time councillors would no longer be allowed to hold other jobs.

"Part-time councillors are also required to get permission from their employers. It is up to the employers to accept or decline the requests," Mabaso said.

Mathonsi said Sadtu had asked the department to allow councillors to take unpaid leave because it was risky to leave their teaching posts for municipal jobs that were not permanent.

"We don't want to have a situation whereby scores of teachers lose their positions. We wrote a letter to the MEC last month and we have not received any response."

Sadtu provincial chairperson Chris Ndlela is among teachers who have to resign from their teaching posts. He recently became mayor of Msunduzi municipality, which incorporates the city of Pietermaritzburg. Ndlela, who is a full-time official, declined to comment.

Allan Thompson, Natu acting general-secretary, said his union also supported the idea of granting teachers unpaid leave. "They must not lose their jobs," he said.

He said his union agreed that full-time councillors should not hold other jobs.

"We know that teachers who are councillors hardly spend a week at school. It is even worse if the principal is a councillor," he said.

Mabaso said municipalities were affected when councillors held other posts.