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Date : 01/05/2005
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Workers Day celebration


Keynote address by the Minister of Health, M Tshabalala-Msimang, at the Workers Day celebration, George

It is a great honour for me to celebrate this historic day with the workers and people of George.

This year the African National Congress (ANC) has decided to dedicate this Workers Day to the memory of the late comrade Ray Alexander, isithwalandwe. Comrade Ray became active in the underground Communist Party as a teenager in her motherland of Latvia. She arrived in South Africa on 6 November 1929, and joined the Communist Party of South Africa five days later on 11 November. She also became increasingly involved with trade union activities. She helped organise workers in almost all industries, but is best know for her work in building the Food and Canning Workers Union.

In April 1954, together with the likes of Helen Joseph, Lilian Ngoyi and Florence Mkhize, comrade Ray helped found the Federation of South African Women, which fought for women's rights and pioneered a Women's Charter. Like many other comrades, she was harassed by the apartheid regime and in 1965 Ray and here husband and fellow comrade Jack Simons left South Africa and remained in exile for twenty-five years.

Throughout her life, comrade Ray Alexander was steadfastly devoted to the liberation of our people. She was a lifelong member of the Communist Party, a leading activist in the trade union movement and an active leader of both the ANC and the ANC Women's League. The Alliance between the ANC, the South African Communist Party, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and SANCO, is the organisational expression of everything the comrade Ray stood for.

Comrade Ray believed that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, men and women. She believed that people were equal and fought for a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa. Comrade Ray believed in the social emancipation of all our people - that people should share in the country's wealth and that there should be houses, security and comfort.

As you know, next month we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Charter which contains all these principles that Ray Alexander and the rest of our movement stands for. During the 25th anniversary of this historic document in 1980, the late President of the African National Congress, Oliver Tambo described the Freedom Charter as "not merely the Freedom Charter of the African National Congress and its allies. Rather it is the Charter of the people of South Africa for liberation. Because it came from the people, it still remains a people's Charter, the one basic political statement of our goals to which all genuinely democratic and patriotic forces of South Africa adhere."

Despite the change of conditions in South Africa and internationally since this document was adopted by the Congress of the People in Kliptown 50 years ago, the Freedom Charter remains the basic political statement of our goals, the goals we are determined to achieve.

We have made progress over the past 11 years of our freedom and democracy in working towards realisation of many of these goals. We have consolidated our democracy through at least three general elections. On all these important occasions in our democratic process, more and more people have expressed their confidence in the ANC as an organisation that has a vision and capacity to take this country forward and improve the lives of all South Africans.

The Imbizo and Letsema campaigns ensure that our people continuously engage with their government to ensure that government programmes and services respond to their needs. There are also structures like hospital boards and clinic committees, school governing bodies, community policing forums and other structures, which ensure continuous community participation in decision making and service delivery.

The local government elections that should take place later this year give us an opportunity to further consolidate our democracy and build on the gains we have made over the past decade. I hope that as workers, we will ensure that all our people participate in this process.

The first decade of freedom and democracy has brought major gains for the labour movement in this country. A better environment has been created to protect and defend the interest of workers in this country. Our celebrations this year coincide with the 10 year anniversary of the passing of the Labour Relations Act, an important milestone in the history of the labour movement. Other pieces of legislation have also been passed to transform the workplace and protect workers.

As we celebrate 20 years of the existence of the trade union federation, Cosatu, we look back with pride at the gain that the labour movement has made in defence of the working class and the poor majority in our country.

There is still a lot that needs to be done in all fronts. We have to continuously address issues of equity in access to employment and the ownership of the productive property and address the critical issue of land distribution. We have to extend access and quality of health, education and other services rendered to our people.

As we improve services delivery, we have to address also the issue of corruption and mismanagement to ensure that all the resources meant to benefit our people do reach them. One of the entities under the auspices of the Department of Health is the Compensation Commission for Occupational Diseases (CCOD). The Compensation Commission is responsible for payment of benefits to active and ex-miners who have been certified to be suffering from lung related diseases as a result of the risk work they have performed in the mines and other classified work areas. The Commission pays about R6 million per month on compensation claims from workers.

There are people - not employed by CCOD - who assist miners and ex-miners in completing and submitting application forms for compensation and make enquiries on behalf workers to the CCOD. We have found that some of these people submit their own bank details in these claims and the payments are therefore transferred to them and the legitimate claimants do not receive anything.

One person representing a company called Consumer Centre who was allegedly involved in this corrupt practice in Welkom and Virginia has already been arrested. One bank that this individual use has confirmed that at least R439 211 has been transferred from the CCOD into this person's account.

We are working with the South African Police Service to conduct a forensic audit into the claims paid to this company and we are also reviewing all claims paid to banking institutions other than TEBA which is the banking facility used by most miners. We are conducting an analysis of all the claims that may be indicative of irregular or fraudulent payments.

We are taking steps to deal with the concerns raised by the Auditor General in the CCOD annual report tabled in parliament last week. To put it very frankly, the audit report is bad.

Shortcomings were identified in internal controls such as:

* Incomplete and inaccurate supporting documentation on beneficiary files,
* Duplicate payments to beneficiaries sometimes for the same diagnosis
* And failure to conduct site visits to verify shifts worked by miners.

To deal with these administrative and capacity issues, we have ensured that all staff vacancies at the CCOD are filled including an important post of a Deputy Commissioner. Job evaluations have been done and additional positions created to improve administration and facilitate site visits. Linkages between Medical Bureau of Occupational Diseases (MBOD) and CCOD have been improved to facilitate more accurate claim processes using integrated computerised system. I have also resuscitated the advisory Committee to play an active role to support the CCOD.

We need to make sure that the structures created to provide services to our people function effectively. We cannot allow criminals to undermine our efforts to improve the lives of our workers and all South Africans through theft. We call upon every one who is aware of any fraud or corruption relating to the Department of Health to call our toll free line which is 0800 20 14 14. We need you support to deal with this problem.

We also urge union leaders and representatives to also play a role in ensuring high staff morale and that our workers, particularly in the public sector, deliver the necessary services to our people. We need to also ensure that we work together in dealing with those who are corrupt or are not prepared to deliver.

In conclusion, I would like to quote the statement made by our President during the Freedom Day celebration, he said: "During this new decade, we should ask ourselves as to what we have done, as individuals and communities, to translate into reality the vision that South Africa belongs to all her people. We should ask ourselves whether through our actions we have contributed to the transformation of our country or, whether we have blocked its advance away from our apartheid past. We should ask ourselves whether we have worked towards the goal of a country whose citizens are equal or, whether we have sought to entrench the inequalities of the past."

I hope we will work together to enhance the gains we made in the first decade of our freedom and democracy and ensure that we ultimately realise our vision as perfectly outlined in the basic political statement of our goals - the Freedom Charter.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Health
1 May 2005

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