PHOTO: GCIS
The country s five major unions surveyed 4 309 principals across the nine provinces, which amounts to 19% of schools nationally.
The second school readiness survey for 2021 showed an improvement in principals confidence to reopen schools.
The first survey was conducted in January.
Sixty-six percent of public school principals, surveyed by unions, say they are ready for schools to open come Monday.
This, according to the findings of the second national school readiness survey for 2021 conducted by five of the country s major teachers unions - the SA Democratic Teachers Union, National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA, South African Teachers Union, Professional Educators Union and National Teachers Union.
February is always important for the South African government, fiscus and economy. The month usually kicks off with the State of the Nation Address, which sets the tone for the government’s priorities and key policy objectives for the year, while auditing previous achievements and failures (hopefully).
This event of pomp and circumstance is followed by the Budget, which outlines the government’s expenditure or austerity objectives for the next three years. The budget also allows the government to introduce additional revenue measures such as increasing taxes to shore up public finances.
Considering the impact of Covid-19 on the public purse and economy, which has been more significant than originally expected, the public will probably be on the hook for more taxes. Without assurance from Finance Minister Tito Mboweni or Parliament that has to adopt his Budget proposals, it has been assumed that additional tax increases will target the rich. In the October Medium-Term Budget
Google SA s serach results have shown that American president-elect Joe Biden was the most searched political figure, alongside his deputy Kamala Harris. They were able to dethrone Donald Trump in a historic election that took place last month. Other politicians who interested South Africans include North Korean President Kim Jong-un and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
On the other hand, South African politicians who were the most searched are members of the ANC, especially ministers at the forefront of implementing government s fight against Covid-19.
Here are some of the political newsmakers of 2020
ANGIE MOTSHEKGA
The minister of basic education has had a tough year having had to ensure that schools were able to operate during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Since the Labour Appeal Court handed the government a major victory earlier this week by shooting down inflation-busting salary increases for public servants, the political fallout from vexed trade unions has happened fast.
Trade unions representing SA’s 1.2 million public servants are not giving up without a fight and weighing up two options that will further put a strain on their relationship with the government.
The first option includes trade unions approaching the Constitutional Court to appeal against the Labour Appeal Court ruling, which declared that the enforcement of a 2018 wage agreement was “unlawful”.
The second option might throw SA into chaos because trade unions – including the Public Servants’ Association (PSA) and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) – have threatened a strike by public servants. Saftu’s threat was more specific: “Saftu is calling on all the public servants to mobilise for [a] February 24 [2021] general s