A Brief History
The National Teachers’ Union (NATU) traces its formation to a meeting held at the Bantu Congregation Church which was led by Reverend Makhanya (Ezihlabathini), Beatrice Street, Durban, 1918. This meeting was held between the Northern Natal Teachers’ Association (NNTA) and the Coastal Teachers’ Association (CTA) in the erstwhile Natal Province, now called KwaZulu Natal, in pursuit of the best way these two organisations could effectively serve the teachers of the province. At that time, these were the only teacher unions for Africans in the province, in line with the segregated political dispensations of both the British and Afrikaners’ periods of governance. The meeting resolved to merge the two bodies into one Union – where ‘union’ referred to the amalgamation of the two associations. At its establishment, the Union was called Natal Native Teachers’ Union (NNTU) and its mandate was really to speak in unison in their struggle against the injustices suffered by the teachers in South Africa.
In the history of Education in South Africa, African teachers endured harassment, embarrassment and intimidation in different ways. During the missionary era they would not be employed unless they were members of particular church denominations which controlled the schools where they wanted to work. Accordingly, the teachers were expected to teach Sunday school classes and accompany the Priest on his missions to serve as interpreters. So, many teachers found themselves collowing certain religious practices not necessarily out of faith conviction but just to earn a living to support their families.
When the apartheid government wrestled the control of African Education from the missionaries and created a department of Bantu Education, things got worse for the African teacher. The school boards which controlled Bantu education were notorious for persecuting teachers through their powers to hire and fire at will. The manifestations of this arbitrary use of power included unfair treatments, unfair dismissals and favouritism. Consequently, some NATU members left the country to teach overseas and in neighbouring countries, such as Swaziland, Botswana and Lesotho in protest against Bantu Education and the attendant ill-treatment, but the majority remained to teach against all odds. It was at that time that NATU adopted the slogan “Teach the African child as you never did before.” That was NATU’s response to the unprovoked onslaught on African Education. It was during this time, in the 1950s, that there was a name change from the Natal Native Teachers’ Union (NNTU) to the Natal Bantu Teachers’ Union (NBTU). Quite clearly, this change of name points vividly to the politics of the day.
Despite Education being designated as an ‘own affair’ for the so-called ‘independent’ homelands and self-governing territories, the “super” Department of Education and Training was created to play an oversight role over homeland education. So, from ‘unionism’ point of view, the balkanisation of Education into plethora of homeland departments of Education added another layer of complexity. This was an epitome of the apartheid ideology of separating people according to ethnicity in order to divide and rule them more easily. Concomitantly, the state apparatus became very strong, as the government established pervasive spy networks under the Bureau of Security Services (BOSS) in every sector of society. Numerous African men and women were employed to spy on each other, thereby making it difficult for teachers to operate freely, as their personal security became grossly compromised. Some NATU leaders were known political activists, so, the Organisation became a target of infiltration by the agents of the Bureau of Security Services.
Leadership:
To-date, there have been fourteen elected Presidents of the National Teachers’ Union.
Mr. JH Xaba (1918 – 1926)
Prof. ZK Matthews (1926 – 1929)
Mr. AW Dlamini (1929 – 1930)
Mr. TR Guma (1931 – 1953)
Dr. DGS Mthimkhulu (1939 – 1953)
Mr. MT Moerane (1953 – 1956)
Mr. PO Sikhakhane (1956 – 1958)
Mr. MJ Mwelase (1958 – 1968)
Mr. GT Hadebe (1969 – 1970)
Mr. TR Shandu (1971 – 1979)
Prof. AJ Thembela (1979 – 1996)
Dr. MMA Shezi (1996 – 2000)
Mr. SL Ngcobo (2000 – 2018)
Mr. SA Thompson (2018 – 2021)
Mr. SV Malinga (2021 – to date)