Tshwane, 27 June 2004
Comrade President and members of the leadership of NEHAWU,
Comrades delegates
It is a great pleasure and honour for me to address this 7th National Congress of NEHAWU on behalf of the African National Congress.
I bring revolutionary greetings from the National Executive Committee of the ANC, and the entire membership of your movement.
The 7th National Congress of NEHAWU is taking place at an important time in our country's history and at a challenging moment for the trade union movement and the working class, as well as the national democratic movement as a whole.
This year we are celebrating ten years of freedom. This presents us with the challenge to reflect on the experience of the past decade, and to draw the necessary lessons to enable us to move forward with greater decisiveness in tackling the challenges that lie ahead.
This year we also held the country's third democratic elections at national and provincial level. These elections confirmed the support of the overwhelming majority of South Africans for the programme of national democratic transformation led by the African National Congress and the Tripartite Alliance.
The elections have sent a clear message that the people of this country have confidence in this Alliance to lead the process of building a better life for all. It is a signal that the people of this country are willing and prepared to work together in a people's contract to meet the challenges of tackling unemployed and poverty.
As the Alliance and as the democratic movement we therefore bear the responsibility to ensure that we are able to effectively respond to this clear and unequivocal mandate. We bear the responsibility to ensure that we use all means at our disposal to move decisively forward in improving the lives of our people.
This is among the challenges, which you, the delegates to this conference, need to confront. As workers, as members of NEHAWU, as leaders within communities, you will undoubtedly ask yourselves the question - what is our role in building this people's contract, and working to ensure that we implement this clear mandate that we have been given!
All components of the Alliance have a role to play in building the people's contract. The question that this Congress needs to answer, among other things, is what is the role of NEHAWU, its leadership and its members in this process.
In answering this question, it is important to recall that NEHAWU is a progressive trade union committed to furthering the interests of its members in the workplace; committed to serving the interests of the working class; and committed to the transformation of society as a whole.
In the strong tradition of the progressive trade union movement in South Africa, NEHAWU has defined its role beyond the narrow confines of the workplace. It has argued that the lives of its members cannot be improved without engaging in broader struggles to transform society and further the interests of the working people and the poor.
During the April election, members of NEHAWU and other COSATU affiliates served as volunteers and ANC party agents in different parts of the country, most notably in areas of KwaZulu Natal where the political climate had made it difficult for the ANC to have party agents before.
Given the history of violence and political intolerance in KwaZulu Natal, this was an undertaking that required a level of commitment and selfless dedication of a truly revolutionary nature.
As a result of the selfless efforts of these union members, we were able to ensure that the people of KwaZulu Natal were able to exercise their right to vote in free and fair conditions. The difference that this made to the election was clearly evident in the results in that province, creating the opportunity after ten years for the ANC to take the lead in bringing about a better life for the people of KwaZulu Natal.
I am privileged to convey to you comrades the sincere appreciation and thanks of the ANC and the democratic movement as a whole for the excellent work you and other trade unionists did in this regard. Very well done, dear comrades!
The spirit of selfless service to the national democratic revolution, which informed the participation of union members in this important exercise should continue to inform the conduct of the cadres of NEHAWU as they continue to participate in leading the process of transformation.
Unions like NEHAWU have been able to understand their broader social responsibility because they have comprised, and continue to comprise, the most conscious members of the South African working class. These are compatriots who understand that they have a responsibility as much to engage in struggles on the shop floor as they have to engage in struggles within the communities in which they live, understanding that the long-term interest of workers are dependent on the success of the national democratic revolution.
It is for this reason that the organized working class, and the trade union movement in particular, has been centrally engaged in the struggle for democracy and transformation of this country.
Because of the sectors in which it organizes, NEHAWU has the potential and the capacity to play a major role in contributing to the success of the people's contract. It has, in particular, an important role to play to ensure that the provision of services to the people is efficient, effective and of good quality.
Much has been achieved over the last ten years in transforming the public sector to meet the needs of all South Africans. This has been possible because of the contribution that all in this sector have made. It has been possible to work towards a shared vision of a public sector that is actively engaged in addressing the inequalities and imbalances we inherited fro our apartheid past.
But much more still needs to be done, and it will be up to the public sector to lead the way in the ongoing struggle to ensure that people's most basic needs are met. It is the public sector that needs to improve access for all to quality education that prepares our youth to participate in a rapidly changing economy. It is the public sector, which needs to broaden access to quality health care, particularly among the poor, to ensure that we build a healthy nation.
It is in improving the quality and deepening the reach of service delivery that the members of NEHAWU, in particular, have such an important role to play. As politically conscious cadres, NEHAWU members have the capacity to appreciate how their work contributes to the national transformation effort - and to appreciate the unique opportunity and responsibility they have to make profound difference to people's lives.
Members of NEHAWU, more so than many others, have a unique opportunity to ensure that the concept and practice of Batho Pele becomes a reality for all who interact with government and the public service. Because of the positions they occupy, members of NEHAWU have the ability to contribute in a major way to building a public service that is responsive to the needs of the people, particularly the poor and marginalized. They have the ability to contribute to ensuring that all citizens are able to easily access government services and assistance, and that they are satisfied with their interaction with government.
Members of NEHAWU are similarly well placed to assist in tackling corruption, mismanagement and incompetence in the public service. Not only are members of NEHAWU able to be exemplary in their conduct and in their commitment to high standards of service but they are in a position to detect and report instances of corruption, abuse of office, or any of the other forms of malpractice, which detract from the task of serving the people.
NEHAWU organizes in two sectors in particular that are critical for the development of the people of this country - namely, health and education.
We are all aware that the success of our efforts to tackle unemployment and fight poverty rests to a large extent on our ability to ensure that our people have the requisite education and skills to meet the needs of our economy, now and into the future. It means that we need to devote particular attention, energy and resources into education and training our people, particularly the youth.
Those members of NEHAWU in the education sector have a special responsibility to take the lead in ensuring that e build the kind of skills the country needs. They need to work to build the capacity of this sector, and do everything possible to ensure that we continuously improve the quality of education.
Improving the lives of our people also requires that we work to improve the health of the nation and improve access to basic health care. The quality of life of a great many South Africans, particularly among the poor, is severely affected by diseases like TB, malaria, AIDS, malnutrition, diabetes and cholera. This is further compounded by a lack of access to adequate medical care and treatment further compounded by a lack of access to adequate medical care and treatment.
Alongside our ongoing efforts to tackle these diseases, and to make health care accessible and affordable, there is a particular role that members of NEHAWU can and need to play in ensuring that both the private and public health sectors are responding to the challenges, which the nation requires of them.
As we work, across all sectors of society, to build the people's contract we require the maximum commitment of all South Africans to the task of creating work and pushing back the frontiers of poverty. This commitment needs to be found not only in how we go about our work, but also in what we do in our various organisations and in the communities in which we live.
This responsibility is even greater for cadres of the democratic movement, who have the political consciousness required to understand the important role they need to play in building a people's contract. Part of the responsibility of the new cadre we have spoken about is selflessly to act in the interest of the struggle and the nation, to be exemplary in conduct, and to seek at all times to advance the interests of the national democratic revolution. The new cadre understands that his or her political responsibility does not start and end in meetings of the organization, but extends to all activities that they engage in wherever they find themselves.
That is why were are looking to NEHAWU in particular to play a leading role in the programme of deploying a new cadre of public servants to communities across the country. We have already begun to process of identifying, training and deploying Community Development Workers throughout the country - dedicated personnel located in the communities they are meant to serve, working to make government information, services and programmes more accessible to the people who need them most. They will be responsible to bring government ever closer to the people.
We expect that some of these Community Development Workers will be drawn from among the ranks of the membership of NEHAWU. We also expect that the years of experience of public service that resides within NEHAWU will be most instructive as we start to unfold this programme on a large scale.
But most importantly, we will want to infuse within these Community Development Workers the spirit and ethos of the new cadre that we have seen amongst the membership of NEHAWU.
As a union, NEHAWU has a responsibility to its members to the workers of South Africa and to the country as a whole.
It has a responsibility, as a progressive union comprising the most conscious members of the working class, to strengthen the people's movement, the African National Congress. It has a responsibility to ensure that its members participate as members in ANC branches and other structures to build the organisation politically and ensure that it is able to properly fulfill its role as the leader of the National Democratic Revolution.
NEHAWU equally has a responsibility to strengthen the federation, and ensure that it is a formidable and capable representative of the workers of this country. It has a responsibility to strive for maximum unity within the working class around a programme of progressive social transformation.
The challenge before this Congress is to determine how to translate the spirit of the new cadre into resolutions and a practical programme of action which will contribute to the national effort to build a people's contact to create work, fight poverty and achieve a better life for all.
Once more, I think you for the possibility you have given us to address this 7th National Congress of NEHAWU and to convey the warm greetings of your comrades in the African National Congress. On their behalf and in my own name, I wish the 7th National Congress success in its important deliberations.
Amadla! Matla!