N.B.the COSATU and PSCBC sections
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NEHAWU 3.png
14 April 2015
NEHAWU NEC Statement
NEHAWU convened its 1st National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of 2015,
on the 12-13th of April 2015. The meeting took place at a time, when the
national liberation movement as a whole and the broad masses of our people,
joined the SACP in observing the 22nd anniversary of the assassination of
our revolutionary martyr, and alliance leader Comrade Thembisile Chris Hani.
The NEC also salutes the South African and Russian governments for bringing
back the mortal remains of two of our struggle stalwarts and communist
heroes, Moses Kotane and JB Marks.
The NEC sharply condemned the xenophobic attacks directed to our brothers
and sisters from countries in the continent and supports the call made by
various leaders and organisations for the prosecution of the criminals
involved. We also salute and pay tribute to students, workers and academic
staff at UCT, for their inspirational campaign to remove the vulgar Cecil
John Rhodes statue. We believe that this underscores the potential for
militant offensive against the Neoliberal corporatisation of higher
education institutions and for fundamental transformation.
International situation
The NEC discussed the protracted crisis of global capitalism and which is
engendering an ever more aggressive posture on the part of western
imperialism. Thus, amongst others, the Ukraine, North Africa, and the Arab
peninsula have been turned into proxy theatres of imperialist wars.
Obama's release of the remaining Cuban patriots and review of diplomatic
relations with Cuba only represents a tactical move, merely intended to
still pursue the defeat of the Cuban revolution by other means. Nonetheless,
this represents a victory of the Cuban 5 Campaign. Therefore our task
remains one of stepping up the fight for the normalisation of the diplomatic
relations between Cuba and USA, including an ending of the blockade. The
Executive Order declared against Venezuela underscores the determination of
the empire to reverse the revolutionary gains in the hemisphere.
National Political Assessment
The NEC has concluded that the course of the national democratic revolution
thus far ,reflects the overall balance of class forces that favour the enemy
triangle of white monopoly capital, western imperialism and domestic
political opposition, despite the huge gains that have been scored by the
ANC in the interest of masses of our people since 1994. The white monopoly
capital undermines the NDR with its sustained disinvestment and capital
flight, whilst western imperialism exerts sustained pressure and influence
on the economic policy content through sustained threats of downgrading
issued by sovereign rating agencies. This includes a hostile posture on
negotiations around AGOA by USA and on the Economic Partnership Agreement by
the EU, since SA has become part of BRICS in 2011. The domestic political
opposition is now led by the predominantly hostile media, which is at the
service of an otherwise desperate and weak parliamentary opposition.
The NEC noted with concern an unprecedented appalling spectacle of extreme
anarchic conduct by the EFF and DA since the inauguration of the fifth
democratic Parliament. We have also noted with concern the growing
constitutional litigation industry ,spearheaded by the DA and other
predominantly white NGOs, hell-bent on blocking the democratic mandate of
the ANC and reversing the transformatory gains through the courts.
The NEC expressed concern regarding the persistent lack of internal cohesion
amongst the Alliance formations around the macroeconomic policy content of
the government. This is despite the agreement of the Alliance Summit on the
Task Team to deal with this matter. This underscores the imperative of an
organised working class that is united; ideologically independent as a
class, and that takes seriously the responsibility of building hegemony
within the ANC and strategic centres of power in the state. Otherwise, the
radical second phase runs the risk of being reduced into a pipedream.
COSATU
The NEC considered and endorsed the report on the outcomes of the 30-31
March 2015 of the COSATU Special CEC regarding the expulsion of Zwelinzima
Vavi from the federation. As with the expulsion of NUMSA, this is indeed a
sombre moment in which with deep regret the COSATU CEC found itself with no
option but to discharge its constitutional duty of defending the
foundational principles and integrity of the federation in the face of an
unprecedented theatrical display of extraordinary defiance.
The NEC reiterated the union's view that this is the manifestation of an
endemic organisational malady that has been long in the making, whilst the
centre was more concerned with making headline-grabbling outbursts. This
malady includes the germination of a personality cult and delusions of
grandeur on the part of the former General Secretary. The NEC asserted the
federation's guiding principle of democratic centralism, which means the
subordination of the individual to the organisation, the subordination of
the minority to the majority, the subordination of lower structures to
higher structures, including the CEC and Congress.
Thus, the NEC resolved that going-forward the union shall focus on defending
the federation of Elijah Barayi and our own union, by raising the intensity
of the implementation of our programme of action, including ideological
consciousness, closing ranks and paying special attention on improving
service delivery to our members.
Socioeconomic assessment
The NEC noted that the South African economy marginally escaped sliding back
to recession eventually registering a mere 1,5% growth rate. We are
therefore concerned that in its response to this dire economic situation,
the Treasury has stuck to its old Neoliberal targets of GEAR. This is
despite its proclamations that it pursues a counter-cyclical macroeconomic
policy framework. Thus, the meeting condemned the Treasury's announced
austerity package, in which overall spending is only planned to grow by an
annual average of 2.3% over the next three years, with a view to reduce the
budget deficit to 2.5% by 2017/18 and public debt to below 40% of GDP. This
includes a moratorium on additional jobs, the cancellation of funded
vacancies in the public service and the imposition of an increase in fuel
levies by 80.5 cent a litre.
PSCBC
The NEC received a report on the public service collective bargaining
negotiations. The NEC reiterates NEHAWU's condemnation of the employer's
lack of good faith in the current negotiation round as marked by its
downward revision of its opening offer. We reject with contempt the
insinuations by the spokesperson of the DPSA that "Labour is undecided on a
settlement figure". All of this is an unnecessary display of arrogance and
in fact it is a provocation to our members, especially because the employer
is currently sitting on the same 5,8% that they presented to us seven {7}
months ago, whilst labour has revised its offer. It is unfortunate that the
employer appears not to have learned any lessons from the protracted 2007
and 2010 strikes. Whilst the conciliation process is underway at the moment,
like other COSATU unions we are currently rolling out an extensive
consultation process with our members in their workplaces, with our
constitutional structures about the public service bargaining process. At
this stage, we can only warn the employer than unless it significantly
revises its offer and cease divisive tactics, it is bound to be met by
unprecedented rage from our members that might lead to a total shutdown of
government soon.
Health and Education
We are deeply concerned by the Treasury's failure to release the White Paper
on the National Health Insurance ,despite their commitments to do so ,and
the ANC National Executive Committee's call for them to do so. What perturbs
us is the fact that in the National Budget Review, the Treasury suggested
that until there is sufficient economic growth the NHI project would remain
stalled, claiming that the costs are unaffordable. The NEC is also
discontented that the call made by the ANC NEC in its January 8th 2015
statement, for the in-sourcing of all outsourced services in the health
sector is yet to be implemented.
The NEC also instructed the union to intensify its campaign for the NHI and
also strengthen its service delivery campaign that has already resulted in
the dismissal of the KZN Head of department, Dr Zungu.The campaign would
also be directed towards GEMS to stop the ongoing looting of resources. We
are deeply worried by the state of affairs in the Free State department of
health. Our union will be taking its service delivery campaign to the Free
State to demand accountability by the province and an urgent intervention by
the national department.
On education, our analysis has shown that the crisis around access to higher
education dramatically discloses the inherent contradictions of the NDP,
i.e. on the one hand there is a commitment to expanding access whilst at the
same time a conservative macroeconomic policy framework is applied. This
means students would continue falling through the cracks as improvements in
matriculation pass rates are not matched by adequate proactive planning for
absorption with the necessary increment in financial support.
We condemn the new tendency in historically white institutions, where poor
students are shunted to NFSAS, whilst the historically accumulated reserves
in these institutions are not made available as financial aid by these
universities, as it was the case in the past. This significantly contributes
to the perennial crisis of shortfalls in NFSA's disbursements towards poor
students, as manifested by the sporadic protests in different institutions.
The NEC expressed its disappointment at the DHET's failure to implement
their FET Colleges Turnaround Strategy. We previously welcomed this Strategy
because it outlined guidelines for the necessary interventions in dealing
with specific challenges experienced by individual colleges and called for
accountability in each institution in order to ensure the implementation of
transformation and to ensure a stable transition in terms of the migration
process.
But today we find ourselves in the middle of a crisis caused by a dismal
failure to implement the strategy and also our calls for national
intervention are ignored. The Director General of DHET is more interested in
ensuring that the corrupt and reactionary managers dismiss our members, as
we have seen in the case of the Eastcape Midlands College. The union will
therefore be mounting a campaign for the removal of the Director General of
the Department of Higher Education; he has been ineffectual and unhelpful in
resolving the higher education problems.
For further information, please contact:
Bereng Soke, NEHAWU General Secretary, 082 455 2713
Or
Sizwe Pamla, NEHAWU Media Liaison Officer, at 011 833 2902, 082 558 5962 or
email [email protected]
Visit NEHAWU website: www.nehawu.org.za
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