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17 February 2014 COSATU Northern Cape PEC Statement The Congress of South African Trade Unions in the Northern Cape held its first meeting of the Provincial Executive Committee on Thursday, 13 February 2014 in Kimberley. This meeting was attended by leaders of affiliated unions as well as delegates from the locals across the length and breadth of the province. After extensive deliberations the PEC took the following resolution: On Political Issues We congratulate the ANC in our province on the successful hosting of the provincial launch of the manifesto on 25 January 2014. As COSATU we welcome the ANC's commitment in the Manifesto to ensure the procurement of at least 75 % of goods and services by government locally. We are however of the view that big business should be tied down to this commitment as well. If properly implemented and monitored this will go a long way to create and preserve decent jobs, especially in the manufacturing sector. We welcome the ANC's commitment to protect and strengthen collective bargaining in all sectors of the economy and their commitment to enforce legislation that eliminates abusive work practices. We are of the view that with this legislation properly enforced there will be no space for labour brokers in our economy. The commitment to transform the financial sector is the direct response to the calls we made jointly with the SACP to ease the financial burdens in the workers. We are of the view that the infrastructure roll-out will benefit our province massively and help with the creation of decent jobs. In the current environment we are convinced that the ANC remains the only party that has a potential to respond positively to the demands of the works. Opposition parties in the Northern Cape do not pose any political threat to the ANC; however the negative reporting of the DFA as a local newspaper seeks to tarnish the image of the ANC. We welcome the deployment of the now Executive Mayor of Sol Plaatjie Municipality and hope that it will bring about the desired change in the municipality. We are committed to 70% victory of the ANC in the forthcoming general elections. The COSATU Red Brigade has been released to work with the branches of the ANC and join the volunteer Corps to mobilise for the ANC victory. We welcome the ANC Youth League Provincial Task Team together with the Regional Task Teams in those regions that were disbanded. We trust that working together with the Progressive Youth Alliance the comrades will stabilise the league in the province and bring about a successful and a united Provincial Conference. We wish the ANC Women's League a successful Provincial Conference on 28 February 2014 and hope that they will emerge united and stronger from that conference. The PEC resolved to strengthen the COSATU War Room and ensure that there are comrades who will co-ordinate and monitor the work of the Re Brigade on the ground. On Organisational Issues We are encouraged by the growth of membership as it shows that the federation in the Northern Cape is growing from strength to strength. All locals will convene Local Shop Steward Councils in April 2014 as well as the mass meetings to ensure ongoing campaigns on the ground The unity of the federation is our primary goal and we will embark on programmes to ensure that all affiliates remain united behind our 2015 plan The Provincial Office Bearers will prioritise visits to Colesburg, De Aar, Kgatelopele and Upington Locals to address the organisational challenges in those Locals. On Socio-economic Issues We are angered by the exclusion of labour in the signing of the Mining Procurement Charter. We are of the view that the timing of the signing of the charter was inappropriate given the current challenges faced by the workers in the mining industry. The PEC concluded that the Provincial Government missed a golden opportunity to commit the mine bosses into assisting retrenched mine workers to establish cooperatives to supply goods to the mines. The Provincial Office Bearers are mandated to convene an urgent bilateral with the Premier of the province to communicate our displeasure We note the introduction of the intra-provincial flight which is meant to link the major towns in our districts. We are however concerned at the speed in which this project was launched and have questions as to whether a proper feasibility study was made. The PEC conceded that the distances in the Northern Cape are extremely long and they cause us to spend longer hours on the road than doing the actual work. However it is our view that the exorbitant travel fares charged are a deepening of a crisis than a solution to the problem. We therefore have a question as to who the target market for this service is, given the fact that it is unaffordable for the majority of those who travel the most in the province. The POBs will meet with the Premier and the MEC for Transport Safety and Liaison to register the concerns of the workers. The silence of the Department of Health on the progress with regards to the NHI pilot sit in the province is a cause for concern. We are of the view that is a provincial pilot site and progress has to be made public for the people of the Northern Cape to know what is happening. We are also disturbed by the continued granting of permits for the building of private health care institutions in Kimberley while our government is committed to the improvement of the public health care system. The pathetic situation at West End Hospital is unbearable for both workers and patients. We therefore call for urgent intervention to ameliorate that situation for quality service delivery to take place. The PEC noted with concern that there is no progress in relation to the ongoing construction of the mental health facility in Kimberley. The POBs are mandated to convene a meeting with the MEC for Health together with the MEC for Public Works to discuss the challenges facing that institution. We welcome the opening of the Sol Plaatjie University as a positive step for our province. However we call on the interim council to convene a stakeholders meeting to engage on progress in this regard. The PEC noted the slight decline in matric results; however what is more important to us is the increase in the quality of passes and the number of learners who qualified for university entrance. We congratulate Namaqua District for putting the Northern Cape on the map by being the third best region in the country. Those educators and learners made us proud. We congratulate the Provincial Chairperson of SADTU for making us proud by ensuring that he gets an award for the most improved school he proved the prophets of doom wrong by sharing them that SADTU leader are good managers as well. We commend all educators and learners for the hard work and call on the class of 2014 to work hard to take the Northern Cape back to the number one spot. On International Issues We will continue to condemn the continued human rights violations in Swaziland and highlight that Mswati III is the last standing absolute monarch in Africa. The PEC welcomed the successful hosing of CHAN tournament by our country and was disappointed by the poor performance of our national team. As COSATU we see the players as workers and therefore would not condone anyone to label them as a bunch of losers. We call on SAFA to investigate the poor performance of our national team without necessarily focusing on chopping and changing of the coaches which has not yielded any better results. The games of the national team must be rotated throughout the country to all nine provinces to reflect that it is a National Team. We will convene a joint workshop with the federation of Namibia as a way of implementing the resolutions of the international work shop. Anele Gxoyiya (Provincial Secretary) COSATU Northern Cape 21 Angel Street Kimberley (053) 832-9090 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. 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