Department of Education promises to engage with Operation Dudula

The Gauteng Department of Education has promised to engage members of the Operation Dudula movement who marched to its offices in Joburg on Wednesday against the prioritisation of foreign national educators over South African teachers.

The movement accused both the department of education and health of putting foreign nationals ahead of locals when it comes to job opportunities as well as placement of learners in schools.

The movement accused the departments and other government department of flouting the country’s immigration policies by employing foreign nationals in their departments when millions of South African languish at home unemployed.

Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane accepted the memeorandum of demands from the movement following the march to the legislature and the department on Wednesday.

“I think it is critical to have a meeting with them,they said they have never met the department, so we will have a meeting with them.By the time we meet, we would have been able to prepare a response to their memorandum.So we will be able to listen to them,” Chiloane said.

Speaking to ENCA, Operation Dudula leader Dan Radebe called on government departments to prioritise South Africans adding that it did not make sense for South Africans to pay heavy taxes and vote for the ruling elites when they are excluded from taking part in the country's affairs.It does not make sense for our children to get an education and then become taxi drivers with those qualifications. We pay heavy taxes for the empowerment of foreign nationals over South Africans. If they want to employ, they must employ South Africans first, then when there is a shortage, then they can consider employing foreigners but they must follow proper procedures. All what we are saying is that they must prioritise South Africans,” Radebe said.

Radebe said the movement is prepared to coexist with foreign nationals as long as they are in the country legally adding that having a passport does not translate to having a work permit.

“Having a valid passport does not interpret to having a valid work permit. We know the stringent processes that must be followed when acquiring a work permit. They (the department) must prove that they advertised these posts including nursing and teaching and failed to access those skills in the country which has forced them to import these skills. They must prove that these processes were followed. It is a process hence we are saying our laws must be respected and observed and procedures must be flowed,” he said.

Operation Dudula movement national co-ordinator Thabo Ngayo told members they should not be apologetic about their demands over the need for government to put South Africans head of foreign nationals.

“We are unapologetic about that comrades.The laws of this country are the laws,we cannot allow lawlessness to continue.People are coming into the country and are turning it into a banana country. We cannot allow foreign nationals to do as they wish without proper documentation to work in our country.”

The movement staged a similar protest in Limpopo with members of the movement also marching to the provincial departments on Wednesday.