{"id":1799,"date":"2021-01-04T19:28:09","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/south-africa\/?p=1799"},"modified":"2021-01-04T19:25:40","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:25:40","slug":"natu-president-allen-thompson-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies","title":{"rendered":"Natu president Allen Thompson dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>DURBAN: Allen Thompson, the long-serving national office-bearer of the National Teachers\u2019 Union (Natu), has died.<\/p>\n<p>Unconfirmed reports from several members of the country\u2019s second-biggest teachers\u2019 union claimed that the vibrant Thompson succumbed to Covid-19-related complications.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson was known for fighting for teachers\u2019 rights and was most prominent in taking on the Department of Basic Education in June last year when he exposed it for failing to deliver personal protective gear and sanitisers amid the ongoing Covid-19 battle.<\/p>\n<p>At that time, Thompson told Independent Media that the department was engaging with unions in bad faith by announcing dates of reopening schools without consulting them and when it was not adequately prepared to do so.<\/p>\n<p>He was elected to the Natu presidency on September 5, 2018 at the union\u2019s centenary celebration conference held in Empangeni. He took over from Siphosethu Ngcobo (now an MP on the IFP ticket) who retired as the longest-serving Natu president after serving for 18 years.<\/p>\n<p>Ngcobo confirmed to Independent Media on Monday that Thompson had passed away but could not say what caused his death or where and when he had died.<\/p>\n<p>The spokesperson of the Department of Basic Education, Elijah Mhlanga, mourned Thompson\u2019s passing as a huge loss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am terribly shocked and saddened at the news of the passing of National Teachers\u2019 Union president. Allen Thompson, to me, was a brother and very good friend. We worked together very well. What a loss,\u201d Mhlanga tweeted on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson\u2019s death comes as the labour movement was still reeling in shock following the death of Koena Ramatlou, general secretary of the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), last week due to Covid-19 complications.<\/p>\n<p><b>Political Bureau<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. DURBAN: Allen Thompson, the long-serving national office-bearer of the National Teachers\u2019 Union (Natu), has died. Unconfirmed reports from several members of the country\u2019s second-biggest teachers\u2019 union claimed that the vibrant Thompson succumbed to Covid-19-related complications. Thompson was known for fighting for teachers\u2019 rights and was most prominent in taking on the Department [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-1799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Natu president Allen Thompson dies - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"DURBAN: Allen Thompson, the long-serving national office-bearer of the National Teachers\u2019 Union (Natu), has died.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Natu president Allen Thompson dies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DURBAN: Allen Thompson, the long-serving national office-bearer of the National Teachers\u2019 Union (Natu), has died.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-04T19:28:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"651\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Natu president Allen Thompson dies\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-04T19:28:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies\"},\"wordCount\":288,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies\",\"name\":\"Natu president Allen Thompson dies - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-04T19:28:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"DURBAN: Allen Thompson, the long-serving national office-bearer of the National Teachers\u2019 Union (Natu), has died.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg\",\"width\":651,\"height\":366,\"caption\":\"Natu president Allen Thompson dies\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Natu president Allen Thompson dies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Natu president Allen Thompson dies - South Africa","description":"DURBAN: Allen Thompson, the long-serving national office-bearer of the National Teachers\u2019 Union (Natu), has died.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Natu president Allen Thompson dies","og_description":"DURBAN: Allen Thompson, the long-serving national office-bearer of the National Teachers\u2019 Union (Natu), has died.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-01-04T19:28:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":651,"height":366,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Natu president Allen Thompson dies","datePublished":"2021-01-04T19:28:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies"},"wordCount":288,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies","name":"Natu president Allen Thompson dies - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg","datePublished":"2021-01-04T19:28:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"DURBAN: Allen Thompson, the long-serving national office-bearer of the National Teachers\u2019 Union (Natu), has died.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-5ff36b87e8676.jpg","width":651,"height":366,"caption":"Natu president Allen Thompson dies"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/natu-president-allen-thompson-dies#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Natu president Allen Thompson dies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}