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SADTU’s call to ban Helen Zille unconstitutional and undemocratic

Dr Wilmot James, Shadow Minister of Basic Education
28 June 2011

The South African Democratic Trade Union (SADTU) has forgotten that we live in a democracy today. To withhold Western Cape Premier Helen Zille’s right to attend and speak at the forthcoming conference of Education International (EI) is an undemocratic act of considerable proportions. Premier Zille was invited to attend by the President of EI but now the local hosts – SADTU – are opposinbag her presence at what they call ‘the workers parliament’.

SADTU’s reaction to Premier Zille’s attendance says a great deal about a union that has ‘democratic’ in its name. The last time individuals were banned from attending and speaking at conferences was under apartheid. Preventing individuals who differed from the ruling regime from speaking or being heard was one of mainstays of the pre-democratic authoritarian past.

SADTU’s reaction reveals its Stalinist slip, and is yet another example of the ‘rising thuggery’ in the Tripartite Alliance that the late Professor Kader Asmal warned against.

We call on the President of EI, Susan Hopgood, to confirm that Premier Zille’s invitation still stands. We hope that she will stand firm against SADTU’s ungracious and undemocratic efforts to muzzle individuals who have a right to speak, to be heard and to offer different perspectives on matters of public importance. In South Africa today, people have the right to express their opinions. This is an inviolable right, entrenched in our Constitution, and we should be vigilant in guarding against its erosion.

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