NEHAWU CEC STATEMENT
NEHAWU convened the 1st Central Executive Committee {CEC} meeting of its 10th National Congress on the 07-08th of December 2013 to discuss and adopt a four year programme of action for the period 2014-2017. The Central Executive Committee recognized that the year 2014 is going to be crucial in the implementation of this four year programme of action as we attend to some of the big organisational and political tasks we have set for ourselves.
Sadly the meeting took place under the shadow of the departure of our beloved Isithwalandwe-Seaparankwe, Cde Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Once more, we send our deepest and heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, comrades and his beloved African National Congress {ANC}.
The year 2014 will see us celebrating the 20th anniversary of our hard won democracy. Historically, many national liberation movements start to flounder after two decades in power, but we have confidence in our time-tested 102 year old giant, the ANC, that it will buck the trend. Its capacity for self-correction is unmatched and it continues to inspire hope and confidence amongst the majority of South Africans.
We have no illusions about the challenges that our movement faces at this historic juncture, but unlike some, we understand that our revolution can only build the momentum towards socialism, when the working class has placed itself at the centre of the movement rather than isolating itself in the luxury of militant abstentionism.
This 20th anniversary of our democracy and freedom imposes upon our movement the need to reflect on the progress that has been made since 1994 and demystify the narrative that the ANC has failed the people of South Africa.
Politically
The CEC reasserted that the combined forces of white monopoly capital and imperialism are the primary adversaries of our revolution, and therefore the drive to forge a radical phase of the transition requires maximum unity and political-will on the part of the ANC-led Alliance if these strategic adversaries are to be confronted.
Lately, we have seen two extreme and opposite tendencies crystallising within our movement, namely; the "reformist opportunism" in the form of the remnants of the 1996 Class Project, for which the NDP is a blueprint that is cast-in-stone and that must be implemented as it is, and a "workerist tendency" within the working class for which anything short of an immediate socialist leap forward represents a sell-out programme. These twin dangers within the ranks of our movement should be combated if we are to seize the moment to build a momentum towards socialism in the course of this second phase.
In keeping with the resolution of the11th congress of COSATU and our own 10th congress, as a union, we are committed to campaigning for the ANC in the upcoming national general elections in order to ensure that the ANC achieves an overwhelming two-thirds majority victory. This, we will do in order to boldly pursue the radical second phase of the transition as mandated by its 53rd national conference and also to keep the dream of a better life for all as envisioned by Madiba alive.
The CEC has identified voter registration and the participation of the workers in the drafting of the ANC's election manifesto as immediate and strategic priorities. Workers should ensure that the Manifesto responds to the needs of the working class and also speaks to the radical second phase of our transition. Our biggest challenges for 2014 are to get our mass constituency to register and to go to the polls on election day.
COSATU
We call on the federation to speedily complete the ongoing internal processes and start focusing on implementing the program of action that came out of the 11th Cosatu National Congress.
The CEC condemned the use of the media and courts by some affiliates to undermine the federation's internal processes.
We want to make it clear that NUMSA is a union of COSATU, a significant number of its members are politically organised by the ANC and SACP, despite the confusion of their leadership with regard to what a trade union is. An attempt to lead the union astray will not be sustainable, and eventually will lead to an internal instability until the union returns to the COSATU fold. We dare this workerist clique to go ahead with their adventurous intrigue, as we are convinced that money and crude pseudo Marxist rhetoric would eventually prove not to be enough to sway the overwhelming majority of NUMSA's members. Otherwise, this is indeed an infantile political bluff that has gone out hand. NEHAWU urges the activists and members of NUMSA to refuse to be misled out of COSATU and the Alliance.
Nonetheless, the CEC mandated the national leadership of the union to work for the unity of the federation in honour of our stalwart, Madiba without compromising the principles and policies of our federation.
Socio-economic
The CEC condemned the Employment Tax Incentive Bill and labour broking and resolved to continue to work for the reinvigoration of COSATU as campaigning trade union centre.
We reiterate our opposition and rejection of e-tolls including the passing of the legislation. We call on our members and the people of Gauteng not to buy e-tags and refuse to pay. The CEC supports the public protector's office as an institution of our democracy, and claim it as a remarkable achievement of the ANC since 1994. However, we hasten to condemn the ongoing leaks of reports by her office and believe that this smacks of a corrupt relationship with sections of the commercial media which is currently desperate as their circulations continue to fall.
We call on the public protector and the security cluster to release the Nkandla report and demand that; those found to have acted inappropriately be made to account.
We support the announced measures by the Minister of Finance geared at reducing and curtailing the wastage and abuse of the public resources. We demand immediate implementation of these measures and the monitoring and punishment on non-compliance.
We support the planned move to give credit amnesty to those who have since met their debt obligations.
Health
The union will remain vigilant with regard to the current processes within government pertaining to the finalisation of the White Paper on NHI and the draft policy - Financing NHI in South Africa.
We shall establish a task team on NHI pilot sites that will be charged with the responsibility of coordinating the establishment and active operation of our provincial health subcommittee as well as to actively monitor developments pertaining to the NHI pilots nationally.
In the light of the Competition Commission's inquiry into private health pricing, the union will take up a campaign, related to the pricing of medicines and the creation of a full-fledged state-owned pharmaceutical company.
The CEC is strongly opposed to the attempts to bring back the failed model of the Social Health Insurance as an alternative to the National Health Insurance by stealth on the part of the Treasury. Thus, we reject and oppose the attempts to establish the risk equalisation fund and prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs). There can never be any universal health insurance without a single-payer that is publicly administered. We therefore call on the Treasury to desist from introducing its own policies, that run counter with the mandate of the ANC government such as the multi-payer model that it is punting.
Like all the Alliance formations, NEHAWU is committed to a single publicly-funded and publicly-administered fund that guarantees cross-subsidisation between the rich and poor, the healthy and the sick, the young and the aged.
The CEC encourages its members and citizens go get tested in order to Know their HIV and TB status and we also encourage their participation in medical male circumcision (MMC) services.
Post-schooling education
We shall convene a meeting with SASCO, YCL and ANCYL to discuss - the governance/management crises in specific institutions, The Right to Learn Campaign, new universities and other key issues on transformation and corporatisation as part of our drive towards rebuilding a broader movement of People's Education for People's Power.
We will take up a campaign on our long outstanding demand of centralised bargaining in the post schooling sector.
We will engage the DHET on the need for a monitoring committee geared at tracking progress and ensuring that the SETAs and the signatories of the National Skills Accord are held accountable with regard to their mandates and commitments.
We shall use the options available in the legal framework to challenge the historically white institutions in terms of compliance with legislation dealing with employment equity, skills development, occupational health and safety, etc.
Our national education subcommittee will work to influence the development of the two universities including curriculum (PQM) choices, employment practices and governance.
We shall draft responses to the proposed undergraduate curriculum reform and a union's position paper on skills development, using the COSATU position paper as a guide.
Organisational
In defence of our union and in defence of COSATU we shall go back to basics of building our organisation on the ground and further improve the service of our members.
We shall, in the coming year 2014, convene more than 1 600 branch congresses throughout the union, and also run massive public service bargaining forums in preparation for next round of negotiations in 2015.
We will continue with the work of rebuilding our branches, cementing our seamless machinery, intensifying our recruitment programme and our education and training of shopstewards. This organisational work shall be accompanied by a dedicated approach to ideological and political training geared at raising class consciousness amongst members, shopstewards, officials, and the leadership of the union.
We shall continue with the town-based mass meetings with our members that we have resolved that they must become a permanent feature.
International
NEHAWU condemns the South African army's collaboration with Nato and the US army. Our objection to this collaboration is informed by our opposition to the war games with the imperialist Americans. They are a source of instability in the world and have politically and economically destabilised a lot of nations.
The union will continue to intensify our international solidarity work with Cuba in defence of the Cuban revolution, against US imperialism and to assert the country's sovereign right to pursue an independent path of social, political and economic development.
We will continue to demand the immediate and unconditional release of Ramon, Fernando, Antonio and Gerardo from US prisons and will continue our monthly demonstrations at the American embassy.
The CEC reiterated its strong opposition to the Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and calls for the removal of all settlements from the Palestinian lands which Israel seized after 1967.
The meeting condemned Morocco's refusal to implement the referendum on self determination in Western Sahara and the ongoing human rights violations in the occupied territories.
We will continue to promote and keep the struggle for the freedom of Western Sahara on the international agenda working with COSATU and the alliance partners.
We support the ongoing struggles for freedom in Swaziland, Basque and other countries around the world.
Statement issued by Fikile Majola, NEHAWU General Secretary, December 10 2013
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