The South African Democratic Teachers Union, Sadtu, has joined the chorus of condemnation of the murder of a Kwazulu Natal educator who was gunned down in front of her class.
Mystery still surrounds the murder of Priscilla Mchunu, the Deputy Principal of Laduma High School, who was gunned down in her classroom last Saturday.
Gunmen entered the room and opened fire on Mchunu in front of her learners, who are now receiving trauma counselling.
Sadtu in Kwazulu Natal said that “his cold-blooded murder which has left not only the family but the community as well as the learners and teachers in her school highly traumatized.”
“SADTU has lost one of her best members who was committed in assisting the Union in realising its vision of creating a learning nation hence her being in class not just on Saturday but during a long weekend when she was supposed to be enjoying herself somewhere else,” the union said in a statement Tuesday.
Spokesperson, KZN secretary Nomarashiya Caluza, says the union “once more, wants to remind the society about the importance of a teacher in the transformation agenda.”
“It is mainly education that can assist to deal with unemployment, poverty and inequalities in our societies. This alone defines the role that a teacher has to play so anyone who kills a teacher must be declared an enemy of the society; in fact killing a teacher is equal to killing the whole nation and as such the entire society must work together in isolating these criminals as they do not deserve to be in our communities,” she said.
Caluza said Sadtu also expressed its condolences to the family another educator, Sithembile Shelembe, who she said died after hearing about Mchunu’s murder.
The union has called on the KZN Education Department to allocate more money for security at schools.
