The President of Denosa and Collective,
The leadership of the Alliance,
Comrades and the Media

Afternoon.

South Africa has created the best collective bargaining forum, which serves as a model for the rest of African counterparts. The Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) together with its sectoral bargaining councils has played an important role in the creation of labor peace, advancement of economic development and democratisation of workplace.

This achievement denotes the broader ideological orientation of the administration in this historical conjecture, which explain our bias towards the working class and further demonstrate the influence of the organised labor in the alliance. The PSCBC (Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council) is there to advance and protect workplace democratisation, which contribute towards high morale, productivity and economic growth. Allow me to compliment DENOSA in contributing in the several years of stability in the Public Service and I am sure both the employer and union have learnt valuable lessons of these collective bargaining processes.

The vigilance of DENOSA in the health sector bargaining processes is the prerequisite and a resource in the delivery of an affordable health care.

Health sector is labor intensive and therefore, bound to experience challenges of shortages, which has implications on service delivery and exposes nurses to litigations. The filling of vacant posts will help to alleviate the challenge and motivate workers, as the morale of workers in this sector is critical, especially towards the implementation of the NHI (National Health Insurance).The epidemic of HIV and Aids superimpose the burden on the health resources and DENOSA becomes very critical in the fight against the scourge.

For government to succeed in implementing the National Strategic Plan to combat the HIV and AIDS will largely depend on the active role of the strategic stakeholders and this Union of nurses is central to our success.

One of the Laws of change in nature and society is the struggle of unity and the opposite of conflicting forces, which is a Marxist Leninist theory of dialectics that I know the working class formation still use to analyze hitherto. The law loosely suggest a situation in which there will be cooperation where there is an agreement and agree to differ where there is no meeting of minds, and that is exactly what characterise the relationship between the state and Public Service Unions.

The workers need to be provided with an affordable houses and Government has established Government Housing Scheme and Denosa has to participate actively in this processes as the scheme provide an opportunity for the workers who will not qualify for RDP houses and at the same time cannot access what is currently in the market. DPSA can be invited to conduct workshops for the workers.

The employer will have to commit to the safety of workers and provide apparels as a matter of utmost necessity as the constitution talks about the right to life .We are a caring Government and therefore must comply. There is will to comply and the capacity is what must be negotiated, as we know that the budget deficit is a universal phenomenon.

Yes, the Profession of nursing must be accorded its rightful status as it provide an essential service to our people in the health facilities. It is also important to ensure that our collective agreements are not legally challenged. We need to ensure that there is consistency and smooth implementation of the collective agreements.

Conclusion

We have created collective bargaining forums to create a democratic environment at the work places, a victory of the workers we are forever celebrating. The vigilant and well-equipped trade union with the working class theory will be able to defend these victories. HIV and AIDS continue to be the scourge that threatens our democratic gains and the involvement of DENOSA in the implementation of NSP (National Strategic Plan) will ultimately alleviate burden on our national fiscus for other social programmes to benefit our people. DENOSA must take advantage of GEHS (Government Employee Housing Scheme) to benefit their members.