Sadtu national spokesperson, Nomusa Cembi, on Thursday said the postponement would give union members a chance to respond to damning allegations made in the leaked interim Ministerial Task Team report.

The postponement comes after the union criticised the report, saying that it lacked credibility and did not accurately reflect what was happening at grassroots level.

The union said it was also concerned that the department was ready to release the report without giving those implicated a chance to respond to the allegations.

"We welcome the postponement because there are damning allegations made against Sadtu members and we wrote to Professor Volmink, seeking clarity three times, but we got no response. We told them that we were being treated unfairly," Cembi said.

On Monday, the basic education department announced that the MTT report, which was due to be released on April 15, would now only be released on May 6.

Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the decision was taken after the minister received requests to delay the release of the MTT final report to allow teacher unions and individuals implicated in the report to rebut or make formal representations to the MTT.

"The minister sought legal opinion on the matter and was advised that the importance of the work done by the MTT cannot be compromised because of perceived and/or inadequate consultations and or interactions on the MTT final report," said Mahlangu.

He said teacher unions had been given the final report and they had between April 1 and 15 to submit written inputs to the chairperson.

The task team was expected to consider written submissions and consider appropriate action between April 15 and 29.

On May 4 and 5, the task team was expected to submit the final report to the minister.

The ministerial task team conducted the jobs-for-cash scandal investigation after a damning exposé by City Press newspaper in 2014. The report implicated Sadtu in the nationwide selling of teaching posts.

In August last year, KwaZulu-Natal school principal Nokuthula Magwanyana was hacked to death in Pietermaritzburg, reportedly by a group who had been trying to intimidate her into resigning. The woman was found dead in her car on a road in the Maqongqo area.

- News24.com