NEHAWU response to the 2021 State of the Nation Address
12 February 2021
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) notes the tabling of the 2021 State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the joint sitting of parliament yesterday on the 11th February 2021, a day that marks the 35th anniversary of the release of our icon, the first President of the democratic Republic of South Africa the late Dr. Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela.
The address by the President was poorly prepared, incoherent, uninspiring, weak and underwhelming considering that we are a country facing multiple health, social and a deepening unprecedented economic crises post the democratic breakthrough.
The country was expecting a far reaching comprehensive vision and a detailed plan to take the country and its people out of this depressing situation and not the same repetition of promises and dreams that were presented by the President last night.
The SONA of 2021 is an unusual one and it takes place in a context where our country is still battling with the second wave of COVID-19 which has inflicted more harm and hardship on frontline workers, workers in general and the poor at large. The pandemic has so far claimed the lives of 47 382 South Africans as of yesterday while more than 1 484 900 people have been infected by the virus in the country. Unemployment remains high at 30.8 percent. The economy has contracted by 6 percent in the last quarter of 2020, with high levels of de-industrialisation, high levels of capital flight and declining levels of investment in the domestic economy and high levels of poverty and social inequality. We expected decisive, bold and far reaching interventions that will take our economy on a different growth path.
That is why as a progressive trade union that organises in the public service we are deeply shocked and dismay by the failure of the President to reverse the decision by Treasury not to honour the last leg of the 2018 wage increases, amidst the empty praises that are forever made to the heroic role of frontline services workers. We view this as being disingenuous, dishonest and a spit in the face of hard working public servants who have carried the burden of the country’s fight against the COVID pandemic. In this regard, the national union is readying itself for the mother of all battles against austerity measures and the neoliberal attacks that are directed to our members, workers and the broader working class.
With the glaring weaknesses in our healthcare system and the opportunity that the pandemic provides to fix our ailing public healthcare system, we believe that the President has dismally failed and betrayed the South African people by not outlining practical plans and measures to resource and accelerate the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) as resolved by successive conferences of the ANC and its allies. To make matters worse, because of austerity measures and reactionary policies of Treasury, our country has failed to produce its own vaccine due to the underfunding and the undermining of innovation, research and development capacity of the our systems of innovation due to years of underfunding, and budgets cuts that have been implemented through a neo-liberal fiscal framework.
While we may be recovering from the second wave, we call on government to adequately prepare for the third wave to avoid a collapse of our healthcare system by making sure that there is adequate and sufficient Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), by filling all vacant posts in our healthcare system, and provide adequate healthcare infrastructure in all our healthcare facilities, and boost the enforcement and compliance of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act in all our workplaces.
NEHAWU notes the key priorities identified in 2021 SONA such as:
· To defeat the coronavirus pandemic
· To accelerate our economic recovery
· To implement economic reforms to create sustainable jobs and drive inclusive growth
· To fight corruption and strengthen the state
As NEHAWU, we welcome all these priorities but doubt that they can succeed under the current economic, social, and health policies that are constrained by a neoliberal macroeconomic framework policy that privileges finance capital over the real economy, private ownership over public ownership and private participation over state directed development.
We are deeply disappointed by the failure of the President of not committing further resources to the National Students Finance Aid Scheme (NSFAS) as per the Tripartite Alliance mandate. Our view is that this will disadvantage many deserving students especially those from working class background and lead to instability and disruption of the reopening on institutions of higher learning and technical colleges.
While we note the ESKOM Compact we remain vehemently opposed to the use of workers savings to finance and bail out of a soon to be privatised and unbundled Eskom which will remain cash cow for certain sections of capital.
We support an infrastructure program as the basis and a vehicle for South Africa’s economic recovery if it is state funded and state led. We remain opposed to the current funding model of blended finance and history has proven the labour movement to be correct if we draw lessons from the failed Gauteng toll gates fiasco.
We reiterate our call for the government to invest in the building of low cost affordable houses as part of an infrastructure roll out program to address the plight of public servants who remain homeless. NEHAWU remains committed in the struggle and fight against corruption and remains unwavering in the fight against neoliberalism and austerity measures.
NEHAWU remains committed to the struggle against patriarchy, gender based violence and other forms of oppression. We call upon all progressive forces to join us in the campaign against austerity measures and the attack on hard worn gains of workers including defending collective bargaining.
Issued by Khaya Xaba, National Spokesperson, NEHAWU, 12 February 2021
