COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi's, address to the DENOSA CEC, August 23 2012
General Secretary Thembeka Gwagwa
President Dorothy Matebeni
National Office Bearers of DENOSA
Members of the Central Executive Committee
Comrades and friends, it is an honour to address the CEC of the biggest nursing union in the country and one of COSATU's shining jewels. It is also humbling to address you, as leaders and representatives of workers in what is one of the most important, yet not adequately recognised professions in the country.
Comrades and friends, allow me to convey my condolences to the entire working class in South Africa and the world which has lost more than forty valuable lives in what is now known as the Marikana Massacre.
COSATU's long standing slogan is "an injury to one is an injury to all"! We call on workers to hold hands and unite in the battle against the mining barons who continue to enrich themselves out of our labour and our country's mineral wealth.
Tomorrow, COSATU will convene a press conference on the situation at Lonmin and address many of the issues that this dreadful situation has brought to the fore. We encourage all of you to step in and attend the memorial services across the country as well as provide support to the grieving families and community. Workers must do this because it remains as true today as it was under apartheid that "an injury to one is an injury to all"!
Fellow comrades, it is also an honour to address you at a time when we are gearing up for the 11th COSATU National Congress. This period, as many of you know, is an immensely difficult one for the federation. Both from within and outside our ranks, we face enormous challenges and have to consistently wage a battle to defend ourselves and the working class in general.
Comrades and friends, let me frank in telling you that COSATU's biggest test in the current period will be in its ability to unite against an orchestrated attack from the employers, right wing organisations and their think tanks as well as from wedge drivers within (those faceless spineless chimps speaking to the media about internal issues) who benefit immensely from divisions amongst workers.
COSATU is a mighty federation and we should not be surprised when the right wing focuses its energy on undercutting the power and influence of the federation which is the fortress of the workers - inqaba ya basebenzi.
Dear Comrades, African socialist revolutionary Amilcar Cabral once cautioned that leaders of the people must always be honest and frank about challenges facing the people and the revolution in general.
I come here specifically with the intention to do what Cabral advised - to "tell no lies and claim no easy victories".
Maqabane, COSATU is currently facing a big challenge from splinter unions formed often by disgruntled elements within our ranks.
The emergence of this phenomenon in the form of NATAWU, a breakaway from SATAWU led by the former President of SATAWU and AMCU which was formed by former NUM members and shaft stewards is extremely worrying.
COSATU subscribes to the principle of "one industry, one union" and believes that workers' unity is sacrosanct. This is why we believe that splinters are inherently reactionary because they divide the loyalties of the workers and undermine their maximum unity.
In sectors as vulnerable as mining, transport and cleaning, the real beneficiaries of these divisions are the capitalists who own and control our economy today.
Dear comrades, today, more than ever before, we face the biggest onslaught waged by the bourgeoisie against the living standards of the working class.
Despite the political and social gains scored since 1994, the working class in this country continues to reel under the pressure of neoliberalism and the legacy of apartheid colonialism. Poverty, unemployment and inequality are the three principal challenges facing the working class in the current period.
We recognise the major advances our country has registered under the ANC government. This includes delivery of basic needs, which has meant millions having access to housing, water, electricity, education and healthcare, etc.
However, most of these gains have been undermined by the slow pace of transformation in the economy as well as the rampant commodification pursued through privatisation and other neoliberalist programmes including the user-pay principle.
Today, South Africa takes the first prize in terms of being the most unequal society in the world. The richest decile is earning about 94 times more than the poorest decile. Africans, who constitute 79, 4% of the population, account for 41, 2% of the household income from work and social grants, whereas whites, who account only for 9, 2% of the population, receive 45, 3% of income. The poorest 10% of the population share R1, 1 billion whilst the richest 10% share R381 billion. Our country is trapped in a developmental paradigm that has simply reproduced these conditions for 18 years now.
Comrades and friends, these inequalities are starkly pronounced in the healthcare sector. The battle to transform the healthcare system in South Africa rests on our shoulders as revolutionaries.
The right to health is a fundamental human right. To make this a reality, our country needs to create a health financing system that is able to raise sufficient funds, and process that will bring together all the health risks for equal and efficient response.
The scale of the health crisis in our country is alarming. In 2010, we reported that maternal mortality has increased from 81 to 600 per 100,000 between 1997 and 2005. The MDG target is 38. Child mortality has been on the decline, but remains high at 68 per 1000 live births, yet a comparable country Brazil has reduced this figure from 58 in 1990 to 22 in 2007.
There are 1000 AIDS-related deaths per day (and another 1,450 people becoming HIV infected each day) and 70% of the case load in the public health system is now taken up by HIV/ AIDS cases, crowding out the capacity to treat other medical conditions. Moreover, while we seem unable to treat more than half the 800 000 needing anti-retroviral treatment, that number is going to rise to 5.5 million within five years these are people already HIV infected who will reach full-blown AIDS.
It is again a known factor that South Africa is one of the 22 High Burden Countries that contribute approximately 80% of the total global burden of all TB cases, the seventh highest TB incidence in the world. Unfortunately the incidence of tuberculosis has increased during the past ten years, in parallel to the increase in the estimated prevalence of HIV in the adult population.
In terms of health insurance, almost 25% of South African households have at least one member who belongs to a medical aid, only 17% of individuals have medical aid scheme coverage and 90% of households do not belong to a medical aid scheme because they do not have money to pay for it. Only 9% of the African population belong to a medical aid scheme whilst 74% of the white population do.
This is reflected in the imbalance in terms of life expectancy. A white person born in 2009 expects to live for 71 years, whereas an African born in the same year expects to live for 48 years. This means that white people expect to live 23 years more than Africans. These facts had not changed by 2011.
All of these are the reasons why we must continue to champion the cause for the implementation of the NHI. COSATU welcomes the unambiguous reaffirmation of the cornerstone and essence of the NHI as providing access to health care as a human right and based on the principles of universal coverage for all citizens of South Africa. Our view is that the NHI must be a single payer and must be publicly administered. There must be no outsourcing of its administration.
We also believe that COSATU must build the partnership with communities, alliance partners and civil society to monitor NHI pilots.
Comrades and friends, we should always be vigilant that our demands are not diluted by profit-seekers, as is happening with the state pharmaceutical company. Although we agree that we need for a state pharmaceutical company, we are extremely disturbed that this will not be 100% state owned.
Opening up the ownership structure of this company to private monopolies and BEE will mean that capital's insatiable appetite for profits will cripple the capacity of the company to provide medicines on a mass scale at affordable prices to public facilities and to the people in general. The 11th COSATU Congress should therefore reaffirm our call for a 100% state-owned pharmaceutical company.
COSATU must resolve to monitor the implementation of NHI and provide an independent assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the initiative at local level. We must oppose attempts to further commodify healthcare provision.
In this context, it will be extremely important to work closely with community-based organisations that are dealing with issues of health on a daily basis.
COSATU should call for the rapid increase in the training of a broad range of healthcare professionals, and for the resolution of the location of training of healthcare professionals between the Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Health, the expansion of community-based health workers and their integration into the public health system.
Neighbourhoods should have a package of public services, as outlined by the RDP, so that material conditions are in place to shift the health system towards a preventive one. DENOSA and other COSATU affiliates in the medical fraternity are absolutely crucial in this battle.
Comrades and friends, we know of the terrible impact that neo-liberalism has had on your profession. Recently we saw newspaper reports about the crisis plaguing the Charlotte Maxeke hospital.
We know that budget constraints and the government's rigid commitment to neoliberal policies have had detrimental consequences for nursing staff. The nursing staff today reels under the pressure of an impossible workload.
COSATU is also aware that the staff shortage in many hospitals often leads to the nursing staff replicating as ward attendants, porters, cleaners and clerks in hospitals. We also know that you perform your crucial roles in the midst of workplaces with no functioning lifts, with no food for patients due to corruption in the supply chain management and in filthy workplaces. For many of you, tea time, lunch breaks and weekends are a luxury.
We are encouraged by the fact that DENOSA continues to pride itself in its work and levels of professionalism amongst its members as medical care givers. Only a revolutionary union, guided by a revolutionary and working class biased work ethic will win over vast sections of our society behind its plight and demands. We are delighted that this union continues to excel in this terrain.
We appeal to nurses, as amongst some of the most important public servants to commit to the provision of good and quality healthcare and uphold ethical and professional behaviour at all times. While we understand the complexity and pressures under which you operate, as revolutionaries we have the obligation to utilise our positioning in society to win over greater sections of our people behind the banner of revolutionary change.
Incidents of uncaring behaviour, aggression towards patients and blatant disregard for life amongst a few in the nursing profession must be fiercely challenged.
As a revolutionary trade union, DENOSA must also lead the struggle to expose and isolate acts of misconduct and corruption in hospitals. We know of the high levels of corruption in the tendering system. We also recently learned about incidents of medical staff selling off corpses to greedy funeral undertakers. It is upon unions in the sector to stamp out this corruption and champion the cause for the transformation of our hospitals.
Revolutionaries cannot leave it to right wing opposition parties to blow the whistle on corruption in our health care system. We are as the defenders of the people have an obligation to wage an unmatched war on corruption.
With these words comrades, I wish you a successful CEC.
Issued by COSATU, August 23 2012
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