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The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] in Mpumalanga held its Provincial Executive Committee [PEC] on the 9th and 10th of October, 2019 at the Promenade Hotel. The meeting received a comprehensive report on the state of the union in the Province. The report dealt with the following areas; a Political assessment covering both international and national contemporary political issues, a socio-economic assessment and an organisational assessment which mainly comprised of operational activities which have taken place in the last three months.

International Assessment:

As the Mpumalanga province, we pledge to escalate our international solidarity work on all fronts especially with our sister union National Public Services & Allied Workers Union [NAPSAWU], the Communist Party of Swaziland [CPS] and the People’s Democratic Movement [PUDEMO]. We noted that during the last solidarity actions on the 25th of September, 2019 that we have been infiltrated by the intelligence services of Swaziland in all the three border gates we were having our actions. This is a cause for concern and we will take this issue up with the security cluster in the Province.

The province will hold the WFTU International Day on the 28th of November, 2019 and it will be hosted by the Bohlabelo Region. One of the issues we will be rallying our members with in the WFTU International Day is the lack of progress in the developments in Mapulaneng Hospital.

We are also exploring our international work with our sister union in Mozambique (SENAF) and on this vein we are going to make a proper analysis of the situation on the ground in order to build a solid relationship with our sister union there.

In building a concerted international relations programme we will have to strengthen the Provincial International Relations Committee and rebuild our Regional International Relations Committees as a matter of urgency.

We still stand affirmed in our support for all the struggling people in the world and we are against the oppression of man by man. In this regard, we support the people of Venezuela and reaffirm our support with the people of Venezuela in defence of the Bolivarian revolution against US aggression and imperialism.

Political Assessment:

As a union, we reaffirm our previous PEC decision to continuously fight corruption wherever it raises its ugly head at all levels where the union organises. Generally, we condemn the fight back campaign in the African National Congress [ANC] because it is reactionary and lacks content. We further reaffirm our commitment to strengthening of the worker-student alliance with working with the South African Students Congress [SASCO] in order to control the universities and TVETS through a radical tertiary education programme.

The PEC further reiterated its stand and firm commitment to the National Democratic Revolution [NDR] as our common programme in the revolutionary alliance as a direct route to socialism. However, the PEC notes that there is a lack of a common platform where the revolutionary alliance makes a proper assessment of the NDR as a common programme and direct route to socialism. The PEC hold a strong view that after the NASREC moment we have moved two steps back as a movement. In this regard, the PEC reiterated its firm commitment of building and strengthening COSATU at all levels in the province.  We remain resolute as the PEC that we are not going to be peddled in any of the factions in the ANC but will participate in the building of the ANC in the province as our revolutionary centre and continue serving the interest of our members as mandated.

The PEC condemned the recent xenophobic attacks and gender based violence, rape and femicide. As a province, we are strongly opposed to these barbaric acts as they tend to divide the working class at large and furthermore we condemn all acts of tribalism because our view is that xenophobia can quickly degenerate into tribalism.

Socio-Economic Assessment: 

The PEC noted the appalling state of municipalities in the province, the glaring state of under capacity and the lack of strategic vision. The state of our public entities is also very shabby yet they should be the key drivers of our developmental state programme. In our next PEC we will focus broadly on public entities so that we can shape a strategy to rebuild them from the ground up and also capacitate our shop stewards in these entities.

The PEC expressed disgust at the fact that the moratorium on the filling of vacant posts in the public service is still in place. It is our firm view as the PEC that the moratorium should be scrapped by the Mpumalanga Provincial Government as a matter of urgency and the national union in the province will not rest until it is completely uplifted in all departments.

The national union welcomes the long overdue publication of the National Insurance Bill which is consistent with the White Paper on the NHI. The union throws its weight fully behind this legislation as it seeks to create a single purchaser, universal health coverage and integrated health system. Following the extension of the period for the submission of the comments by the public on the bill to the 29th November 2019, we will engage our members in all 197 Branches and all union officials in the province to support the National Health Insurance Bill by signing the pledge forms, attend the public participation consultation meetings to support Bill. We will use the NHI as an organising tool and roll our NHI meetings in our different sub-regions.

We believe that not much work has been done on the National Health Insurance (NHI) and in this regard, as part of our health transformation programme the NHI will be our cutting edge programme and in this regard we will intensify workshops on the ground with all the stakeholders on the programme. The NHI will be a toothless dog if we do not push for the implementation of the state-owned pharmaceutical depot in the province and also emphasise on it to provide alternative medicine. Alternative medicine will also support our programme of a healthy mind in a healthy body. We will also continue running with our NEHAWU nurses forums at all levels. In terms of health transformation programme nurses are at the centre and we have to intensify the organising of nurses to be a key catalyst in the carrying out of the NHI programme on the ground.

The national union will ensure that the state houses are disposed and that members beneficiaries in the process. In this regard we will communicate with the secretary of the PSCBC to ensure that the process of auditing the state houses is kick-started without any further delay. The abolishment of salary level 1-3 is another matter which the union will continue fighting for. 

Further, as we continue rolling the programme of Regional Congresses the Provincial Office Bearers will be convening bilateral meetings with the Regional Office Bearers in the different regions. We will also continue rolling out membership meetings on the ground in terms of strengthening the voice of the workers in the different sectors we are organising starting with the Department of Social Development. The union in all four regions will complete the launching of all subcommittees before the next provincial executive committee meeting.

We will also strengthen our work of establishing the manager’s forums and build the professionals forums in the tertiary education sector. The Zithabiseni task team will look at the details of the Zithabiseni Commercialisation Project and in this regard the union must ensure that jobs are not lost during this process. We will also strengthen our programme of recruiting the early childhood development workers.

In conclusion, the PEC remains resolved in building unity in the province at all levels and as we head towards the New Year the training of ROBs will be at the centre of our training programme. The work of strengthening COSATU is at the centre of our work especially at the local level and in this regard all REC meetings should receive reports from comrades of NEHAWU deployed to lead COSATU at the local level.

Issued by NEHAWU Mpumalanga Provincial Secretariat