Experiment has shown that 4H- and 6H-SiC pin diodes degrade rapidly during forward biased operation. This degradation is accompanied by the formation and expansion of stacking faults in the basal plane. It is believed that the observed rapid stacking fault growth is due to a recombination-enhanced dislocation glide (REDG) mechanism at the bordering partial dislocations. In our work we investigate the structure and properties of basal plane 30degrees Shockley partials in SiC by means of density functional based calculations. Barriers to their glide motion, and thus the expansion of the accompanying stacking fault is modelled in a process involving the formation and subsequent migration of kinks in the dislocation. In combination with an analysis of the electronic structure of the partials and stacking faults, this allows an identification of those types of partials which will be affected by the REDG mechanism in this model.