Clashes between mineworkers and police at the Marikana mines where platinum is extracted. Official reports indicate around 44 have died over the last week., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
COSATU statement on Marikana Massacre
24 August 2012
In response to the carnage at Marikana COSATU issues a strong statement to express its shock and dismay that so many lives have been lost in such a violent manner. Today we want to reiterate our heartfelt condolences to the families and fellow workers of those who perished in the tragic events in Marikana.
We join all South Africans, and many millions more across the globe, in mourning this tragic loss of 44 lives and we also send our best wishes to the 78 people who were injured and hope that they recover as quickly and fully as possible. We also express our solidarity to all other workers who have been killed in senseless and orchestrated violence since February 2012.
We share the pain, grief and despair that the families of the bereaved must be feeling. Families lost their loved ones, husbands, sons and brothers, and in most cases have also lost their only breadwinner.
We know that most employed workers support as many as 12 family members from their meagre wages. The biggest source of income for the unemployed – 70% - is in the form of remittances from employed family members.
The families affected by this tragedy come from all over South Africa, not just around the mines, but in areas established by the apartheid regime to facilitate the supply of cheap labour to the mines, and also from neighbouring states.
We must appreciate the massive significance of this tragedy. After 18 years of democracy we have witnessed scenes which we had hoped were now only part of our history. For 34 workers to be killed within three minutes is a colossal disaster. It has understandably made headlines and provoked protests throughout the world.
COSATU is however refusing to use this tragedy to score points. We won’t play the blame-game nor will we use the anger workers and their communities are feeling to drive sentiments against government or anyone. We must await the findings of the Commission of Enquiry, which we have welcomed, and hope will establish exactly what happened not only on that tragic day but in many months before that day.
Next week we shall write a letter to all members of COSATU to trace the events that led to this tragedy. We shall do so, again, not to apportion blame but from the working class perspective provide leadership and political direction to our members and supporters who are calling for direction from their movement during these trying times.
One question which we have to confront immediately however, is what COSATU has raised for many years now – a pattern of brutality and a "skiet en donner" attitude on the part of the commanders of the police. While the Commission of Enquiry must determine precisely what happened in this case - and we cannot attach blame until we have the full picture - there can be no doubt that the police response was excessive and forms a pattern we have witnessed for many years in terms of how police handle demonstrations.
We have on countless occasions protested against the immediate resort to firing live ammunition which reveal a serious lack of training and planning on crowd control tactics. We have also protested the use of rubber bullets on unarmed protesters.
Police must be trained to negotiate before using force to control crowds. We want to see no guns, including those firing fire rubber bullets! We want to see riot shields, water-cannons and tear-gas, not R5 automatic rifles, to control crowds.
COSATU has consistently condemned the use of live ammunition in protest actions by workers and in communities, and will continue to argue for a better trained, better equipped and socially responsible police service.
We must also equally criticize the carrying and use of dangerous weapons by demonstrators and strikers. We must ensure that members of society do not carry dangerous weapons and our demonstrations must be peaceful and free from intimidation of those who choose not participate in our strikes or protest actions.
Workers have every right to be militant and angry, but must also be peaceful, lawful and orderly, as COSATU has always insisted, and successfully achieves in the vast majority of cases on a daily basis.
The underlying problems which give rise to incidents like those at Marikana are the stark levels of inequality in South Africa and the super-exploitation of workers by ruthless and rapacious employers. Since they discovered diamonds, gold and platinum these greedy companies forced people from all over Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa to go down every day deep in the bowels of the earth and dig out precious stones.
They work in most dangerous conditions in high temperatures, in damp and poorly ventilated areas where rocks fall daily, killing many and condemning others to a life in a wheelchair and the loss of limbs. Some families have never even had the chance to bury their breadwinners, whose bones remain buried underground.
The rock-drill operatives (RDOs) at the centre of the dispute perform a more dangerous, unhealthy and difficult job than anyone else in the world. They face death every time they go down the shafts. Yet their monthly earnings are just R5 600!
Compare that to their bosses. The earnings of Lonmin’s Financial Officer, Alan Ferguson, are R10 254 972 a year, R854 581 a month, 152 times higher than an RDO!
We welcome the fact that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is already taking up the RDOs’ claim, with comparable demands for other workers in the industry, whose wages are equally pathetic, and whose living conditions are also still squalid and lacking in basic services.
In the face of these inequalities our responsibility is to maintain workers’ unity and direct their anger and frustrations to those who keep wages down and working conditions unbearable - the bosses. Our enemy is not ourselves or some amongst ourselves - our enemy remains the capitalist system that exploits workers and robs them of the social surplus.
Everyday COSATU fights hard to expose these massive income inequalities. We have for decades and for the past 18 years campaigned that the country and government must spare no energy in a united battle against the tripe challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequalities.
Everyday our unions, including the NUM, engage management in protracted battles using negotiations and collective bargaining, and when all else fails, embarking on legal strikes to force collective agreements to improve workers wages. Today every study shows that members of the unions enjoy better wages, conditions of employment and job security in comparison to unorganized workers.
The NUM has a proud 30-year history of fighting to improve the lives of this most exploited section of the working class. It has always been a fortress of the mine workers’ struggle, championing their demands for better wages and working conditions. It has earned its stripes as a true representative of workers and lifted the bar for all the workers they represent.
As COSATU’s biggest affiliate, with over 300 000 members, it will and must continue to defend and improve the lives of mineworkers and play a leading role in the federation for years to come.
Today conditions of mine and construction workers, whilst far from ideal, have improved for the better. Workers who used to be treated as the lowest of the low, with no respect for their human dignity and paid starvation wages, have won important improvements in pay, health and safety and living conditions.
Today the NUM, and the whole trade union movement, is facing a huge threat to workers’ unity. The report to be issued next week will reveal what we have identified as a as a co-ordinated political strategy to use intimidation and violence, manipulated by disgruntled former union leaders, who have been discredited, expelled for ill-discipline, in a drive to create breakaway ‘unions’ and divide and weaken the trade union movement.
Part of this onslaught against the federation is the emergence of the splinter unions in the form of NATAWU, a breakaway from SATAWU, and AMCU which was formed by the former NUM members. This is extremely worrying!
We not surprised that the right wing is focusing its energy on undercutting the power and influence of the federation which is the fortress of the workers. Today political opportunists of all different kinds disingenuously express shock at the pathetic salaries earned by mineworkers in general and rock drillers in particular.
Suddenly politicians who on a daily basis condemn workers for being too militant and for acting against the interests of the unemployed, are suddenly expressing sorrow and disgust and have even have the guts to blame ‘defocus’ amongst unions for this state of affairs.
Their latest recruit is former ANC Youth league leader Julius Malema, a wealthy essentially right-wing leader, who demagogically exploits any perceived weakness to encourage workers to leave their union, their only means of defence.
What all these opportunist right wing politicians have in common is to blame COSATU for the workers’ problems and try to divide and weaken the workers’ movement.
COSATU uses all its constitutional structures to address its weaknesses and to fortify its strengths. Weaknesses and organizational challenges will always be part of any organisation. No organisation does not have challenges, but COSATU does not hide these. The most important thing is that these must be confronted before they undermine the strength of the workers.
In less than a month, COSATU’s National Congress will be convening. While we shall be celebrating yet another record level of membership, we will also have to discuss how we can defeat this attempt to divide and weaken the workers, how we can give even better service to our members, and cut the ground from under the feet of the bogus breakaway ‘unions’ and their political and financial backers.
At our congress we shall seek to strength the capacity of the federation to intervene when its affiliated unions faces problems. We shall do everything possible to prevent splits and preserve and strengthen our unity. The old slogan: “United we stand – Divided we Fall” is not empty rhetoric. It is the key to our success in transforming workers’ lives, building prosperous and peaceful world and preventing any more Marikanas.
COSATU subscribes to the principle of "one union, one industry" and believes that workers unity is sacrosanct. That is why we believe that splinter unions are inherently reactionary because they divide the loyalties of the workers and undermine the need for maximum unity and strength.
COSATU together with all affiliated unions have fought against attempts to promote workers differences, including through tribalism and regionalism. In the aftermath of this tragedy we call on workers to maintain maximum unity and not to allow any force to undermine the gains we have made.
Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 or Direct: +27 10 219-1339
Mobile: +27 82 821 7456
E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za
COSATU message to Marikana memorial services
23 August 2012
On behalf of the 2.2 million members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, we bring our heartfelt condolences to the families and fellow workers of those who perished in the tragic events in Marikana.
We join all South Africans, and many millions more across the globe, in mourning this tragic loss of 44 lives and we also send our best wishes to the 78 people who were injured and hope that they recover as quickly and fully as possible.
We share the pain, grief and despair that the families of the bereaved must be feeling. You have lost your loved ones, your husbands, sons and brothers, and in most cases have also lost the only breadwinner.
We know that most employed workers support as many as 12 family members from their meagre wages. The biggest source of income for the unemployed – 70% - is in the form of remittances from employed family members.
The families affected by this tragedy come from all over South Africa, not just around the mines, but in the ‘sending areas’, the former ‘homelands’ established by the apartheid regime to facilitate the supply of cheap labour in the mines.
COSATU will be holding a media conference tomorrow, Friday 24 August 2012 at 10h00, about the Marikana events, and on Tuesday, 28 August 2012 we shall issue a detailed report on the background to the workers’ dispute with Lonmin and other related developments in the platinum mines and the trade union movement.
Now is not the time to go into this detailed assessment, nor to play the blame-game. We must await the findings of the Commission of Enquiry, which we hope will establish exactly what happened on that tragic day.
We must however appreciate the massive significance of this tragedy. After 18 years of democracy we have witnessed scenes which we had hoped were now only part of our history. For 34 workers to be killed within three minutes is a colossal disaster. It has understandably made headlines and provoked protests throughout the world.
We must reject any idea that this is just a normal feature of South African life and become immune to such unnecessary loss of life. Never again must we see such scenes on our TV screens!
One question which we have to confront immediately however, is what COSATU has raised for many years now the brutality and ‘skiet en donner’ attitude on the part of the commanders of the police. While the Commission of Enquiry must determine precisely what happened - and we cannot attach blame until we have the full picture - there can be no doubt that the police response was excessive.
We fully appreciate that police officers also lost their lives in the events leading up to the 34 deaths and that they were acting under orders, and the blame for their violent and unprofessional conduct must not be laid at the door the rank-and-file officers, but those who gave the orders.
We have countless occasions protested against the immediate resort to firing live ammunition which reveals a serious lack of training and planning on crowd control tactics. Police must be trained to negotiate before opening fire with automatic rifles and live ammunition. We want to see riot shields, water-cannons and tear-gas not R5 automatic rifles to control crowds.
At the same time we must ensure that members of society do not carry dangerous weapons and our demonstrations must be peaceful and free from intimidation of those who choose not participate in our strikes or protest actions.
COSATU has consistently condemned the use of live ammunition in protest actions by workers and in communities, and will continue to argue for a better trained, better equipped and socially responsible police service.
We must also equally condemn the carrying and use of arms by demonstrators and strikers. Workers have every right to be militant and angry, but must also be peaceful, lawful and orderly, as COSATU has always insisted.
The underlying problems which give rise to incidents like those at Marikana are the stark levels of inequality in South Africa and the super-exploitation of workers by ruthless and rapacious employers. Since they discovered diamonds, gold and platinum these greedy companies forced people from all over Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa to go down every day deep in the bowels of the earth and dig out precious stones.
They work in most dangerous conditions in high temperatures, in damp and poorly ventilated areas where rocks fall daily, killing many and condemning others to a life in a wheelchair and the loss of limbs. Some families have never even had the chance to bury their breadwinners, whose bones remain buried underground.
The rock-drill operatives at the centre of the dispute perform a more dangerous, unhealthy and difficult job than anyone else. They face death every time they go down the shafts. Yet their monthly earnings are just R5 600!
Compare that to their bosses. The earnings of Lonmin’s Financial officer, Alan Ferguson, are R10 254 972 a year, R854 581 a month, 152 times higher than a rock-drill operative!
We urge the National Union of Mineworkers to take up their claim, with comparable demands for other workers in the industry, whose wages are equally pathetic, and whose living conditions are also still squalid and lacking in basic services.
The NUM has a proud 30-year history of fighting to improve the lives of this most exploited section of the working class. It has always been a fortress of the mine workers’ struggle, championing their demands for better wages and working conditions. It has earned its stripes as a true representative of workers and lifted the bar for all the workers they represent.
As COSATU’s biggest affiliate, with over 300 000 members, it will continue to defend and improve the lives of mineworkers and play a leading role in the federation for years to come.
But now the NUM, and the whole trade union movement, is facing a huge threat to workers’ unity. The report to be issued on Tuesday will reveal what we have identified as a as a co-ordinated political strategy to use intimidation and violence, manipulated by disgruntled former union leaders, in a drive to create breakaway ‘unions’ and divide and weaken the trade union movement.
In less than a month, the ‘workers’ parliament’, COSATU’s National Congress, will be convening. While we shall be celebrating yet another record level of membership, we will also have to discuss how we can defeat this attempt to divide and weaken the workers, how we can give even better service to our members, and cut the ground from under the feet of these bogus breakaway ‘unions’ and their political and financial backers.
We must do everything possible to prevent splits and preserve and strengthen our unity. The old slogan: “United we stand – Divided we Fall” is not empty rhetoric. It is the key to our success in transforming workers’ lives, building prosperous and peaceful world and preventing any more Marikanas.
Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street
Braamfontein
2017
P.O.Box 1019
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 or Direct: +27 10 219-1339
Mobile: +27 82 821 7456
E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za
SAMWU says no more Marikana’s
23 August 2012
This Union has been watching the developments in Marikana after the killing of 37 mine workers last week, and believe it is important that we express a viewpoint about what has happened. While we support the call for the various enquiries that are scheduled, and hope that they uncover the whole truth, we cannot remain silent. The killing of 37 workers, regardless of which Union they belong to, or their demands, or the way that they have conducted their dispute is still a shocking attack on the working class, and especially organised workers. Our Federation COSATU was built on the slogan of An Injury To One is An Injury To All. There are a number of reasons why we must not flinch from commenting on what has happened.
Our most pressing concern is the continuing arrogance of the mine owners. In almost the same breath that they expressed their condolences, they threatened all those who refused to go back to work with dismissals. This is unacceptable behaviour. The whole community is traumatised and to expect them to behave as if it was business as usual is an indication of how the profit motive is paramount for mine owners. In other words they don’t give a damn about the workers, or the communities where they live. The report from the Benchmarks Project that was written just before the massacre exposes their callous disregard for workers and their communities. It was left up to no less than the Presidency to inform the company that a period of Seven Days of Mourning had been declared and that threats of dismissals were therefore inappropriate.
Our second concern is the very worrying role of the police in industrial disputes. We have still to hear a convincing argument why vast numbers of police personnel were supplied with automatic weapons and live ammunition. What was the strategy that they were following? Was this considered a war situation? Why was there not a fall-back position in place? What were the police hoping to achieve? We hope that the various inquiries will also explain why so many of the dead and wounded were shot in the back while retreating, and why there has been a thorough police clean-up of possible evidence in the killing fields of Marikana.
As a Union we are no strangers to the police opening fire on our members, including with live ammunition as the killing of one of our local leaders Comrade Petros Msiza indicates in Tshwane in February 2011. An arrest for this killing is still to be made. We hope that the whole of the trade union movement and civil society will join with us and demand that armed battalions of the police have no role to play in settling industrial disputes. This is not befitting the democratic society we claim to be. Is it any wonder that people all over the world are shocked at what has happened in the rainbow nation?
Finally, we hope that the trade union movement will regard this tragic situation as a wakeup call to strengthen our democratic structures, to ensure that our leaders and our members are united and act together, including in the communities where they live, and that we do not make the mistake of putting short term interests in front of what is needed for the working class as a whole.
Our sincere condolences go out to all of the families and communities who have lost loved ones, and also to those who are recovering from injuries. We hope that out of this massacre, important lessons are learned for all concerned, and that we can say with confidence, Never Ever Again.
Issued by;
Tahir Sema.
South African Municipal Workers` Union of COSATU
National Media and Publicity Officer
tahir.sema@samwu.org.za
Office: 011-492 2835 .
Fax: 0866186479.
Cell: 0829403403 .
COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi’s, address to the DENOSA CEC
23 August 2012
General Secretary Thembeka Gwagwa
President Dorothy Matebeni
National Office Bearers of DENOSA
Members of the Central Executive Committee
Comrades and friends, it is an honour to address the CEC of the biggest nursing union in the country and one of COSATU’s shining jewels. It is also humbling to address you, as leaders and representatives of workers in what is one of the most important, yet not adequately recognised professions in the country.
Comrades and friends, allow me to convey my condolences to the entire working class in South Africa and the world which has lost more than forty valuable lives in what is now known as the Marikana Massacre.
COSATU’s long standing slogan is “an injury to one is an injury to all”! We call on workers to hold hands and unite in the battle against the mining barons who continue to enrich themselves out of our labour and our country’s mineral wealth.
Tomorrow, COSATU will convene a press conference on the situation at Lonmin and address many of the issues that this dreadful situation has brought to the fore. We encourage all of you to step in and attend the memorial services across the country as well as provide support to the grieving families and community. Workers must do this because it remains as true today as it was under apartheid that “an injury to one is an injury to all”!
Fellow comrades, it is also an honour to address you at a time when we are gearing up for the 11th COSATU National Congress. This period, as many of you know, is an immensely difficult one for the federation. Both from within and outside our ranks, we face enormous challenges and have to consistently wage a battle to defend ourselves and the working class in general.
Comrades and friends, let me frank in telling you that COSATU’s biggest test in the current period will be in its ability to unite against an orchestrated attack from the employers, right wing organisations and their think tanks as well as from wedge drivers within (those faceless spineless chimps speaking to the media about internal issues) who benefit immensely from divisions amongst workers.
COSATU is a mighty federation and we should not be surprised when the right wing focuses its energy on undercutting the power and influence of the federation which is the fortress of the workers – inqaba ya basebenzi.
Dear Comrades, African socialist revolutionary Amilcar Cabral once cautioned that leaders of the people must always be honest and frank about challenges facing the people and the revolution in general.
I come here specifically with the intention to do what Cabral advised – to “tell no lies and claim no easy victories”.
Maqabane, COSATU is currently facing a big challenge from splinter unions formed often by disgruntled elements within our ranks.
The emergence of this phenomenon in the form of NATAWU, a breakaway from SATAWU led by the former President of SATAWU and AMCU which was formed by former NUM members and shaft stewards is extremely worrying.
COSATU subscribes to the principle of “one industry, one union” and believes that workers’ unity is sacrosanct. This is why we believe that splinters are inherently reactionary because they divide the loyalties of the workers and undermine their maximum unity.
In sectors as vulnerable as mining, transport and cleaning, the real beneficiaries of these divisions are the capitalists who own and control our economy today.
Dear comrades, today, more than ever before, we face the biggest onslaught waged by the bourgeoisie against the living standards of the working class.
Despite the political and social gains scored since 1994, the working class in this country continues to reel under the pressure of neoliberalism and the legacy of apartheid colonialism. Poverty, unemployment and inequality are the three principal challenges facing the working class in the current period.
We recognise the major advances our country has registered under the ANC government. This includes delivery of basic needs, which has meant millions having access to housing, water, electricity, education and healthcare, etc.
However, most of these gains have been undermined by the slow pace of transformation in the economy as well as the rampant commodification pursued through privatisation and other neoliberalist programmes including the user-pay principle.
Today, South Africa takes the first prize in terms of being the most unequal society in the world. The richest decile is earning about 94 times more than the poorest decile. Africans, who constitute 79, 4% of the population, account for 41, 2% of the household income from work and social grants, whereas whites, who account only for 9, 2% of the population, receive 45, 3% of income. The poorest 10% of the population share R1, 1 billion whilst the richest 10% share R381 billion. Our country is trapped in a developmental paradigm that has simply reproduced these conditions for 18 years now.
Comrades and friends, these inequalities are starkly pronounced in the healthcare sector. The battle to transform the healthcare system in South Africa rests on our shoulders as revolutionaries.
The right to health is a fundamental human right. To make this a reality, our country needs to create a health financing system that is able to raise sufficient funds, and process that will bring together all the health risks for equal and efficient response.
The scale of the health crisis in our country is alarming. In 2010, we reported that maternal mortality has increased from 81 to 600 per 100,000 between 1997 and 2005. The MDG target is 38. Child mortality has been on the decline, but remains high at 68 per 1000 live births, yet a comparable country Brazil has reduced this figure from 58 in 1990 to 22 in 2007.
There are 1000 AIDS-related deaths per day (and another 1,450 people becoming HIV infected each day) and 70% of the case load in the public health system is now taken up by HIV/ AIDS cases, crowding out the capacity to treat other medical conditions. Moreover, while we seem unable to treat more than half the 800 000 needing anti-retroviral treatment, that number is going to rise to 5.5 million within five years these are people already HIV infected who will reach full-blown AIDS.
It is again a known factor that South Africa is one of the 22 High Burden Countries that contribute approximately 80% of the total global burden of all TB cases, the seventh highest TB incidence in the world. Unfortunately the incidence of tuberculosis has increased during the past ten years, in parallel to the increase in the estimated prevalence of HIV in the adult population.
In terms of health insurance, almost 25% of South African households have at least one member who belongs to a medical aid, only 17% of individuals have medical aid scheme coverage and 90% of households do not belong to a medical aid scheme because they do not have money to pay for it. Only 9% of the African population belong to a medical aid scheme whilst 74% of the white population do.
This is reflected in the imbalance in terms of life expectancy. A white person born in 2009 expects to live for 71 years, whereas an African born in the same year expects to live for 48 years. This means that white people expect to live 23 years more than Africans. These facts had not changed by 2011.
All of these are the reasons why we must continue to champion the cause for the implementation of the NHI. COSATU welcomes the unambiguous reaffirmation of the cornerstone and essence of the NHI as providing access to health care as a human right and based on the principles of universal coverage for all citizens of South Africa. Our view is that the NHI must be a single payer and must be publicly administered. There must be no outsourcing of its administration.
We also believe that COSATU must build the partnership with communities, alliance partners and civil society to monitor NHI pilots.
Comrades and friends, we should always be vigilant that our demands are not diluted by profit-seekers, as is happening with the state pharmaceutical company. Although we agree that we need for a state pharmaceutical company, we are extremely disturbed that this will not be 100% state owned.
Opening up the ownership structure of this company to private monopolies and BEE will mean that capital’s insatiable appetite for profits will cripple the capacity of the company to provide medicines on a mass scale at affordable prices to public facilities and to the people in general. The 11th COSATU Congress should therefore reaffirm our call for a 100% state-owned pharmaceutical company.
COSATU must resolve to monitor the implementation of NHI and provide an independent assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the initiative at local level. We must oppose attempts to further commodify healthcare provision.
In this context, it will be extremely important to work closely with community-based organisations that are dealing with issues of health on a daily basis.
COSATU should call for the rapid increase in the training of a broad range of healthcare professionals, and for the resolution of the location of training of healthcare professionals between the Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Health, the expansion of community-based health workers and their integration into the public health system.
Neighbourhoods should have a package of public services, as outlined by the RDP, so that material conditions are in place to shift the health system towards a preventive one. DENOSA and other COSATU affiliates in the medical fraternity are absolutely crucial in this battle.
Comrades and friends, we know of the terrible impact that neo-liberalism has had on your profession. Recently we saw newspaper reports about the crisis plaguing the Charlotte Maxeke hospital.
We know that budget constraints and the government’s rigid commitment to neoliberal policies have had detrimental consequences for nursing staff. The nursing staff today reels under the pressure of an impossible workload.
COSATU is also aware that the staff shortage in many hospitals often leads to the nursing staff replicating as ward attendants, porters, cleaners and clerks in hospitals. We also know that you perform your crucial roles in the midst of workplaces with no functioning lifts, with no food for patients due to corruption in the supply chain management and in filthy workplaces. For many of you, tea time, lunch breaks and weekends are a luxury.
We are encouraged by the fact that DENOSA continues to pride itself in its work and levels of professionalism amongst its members as medical care givers. Only a revolutionary union, guided by a revolutionary and working class biased work ethic will win over vast sections of our society behind its plight and demands. We are delighted that this union continues to excel in this terrain.
We appeal to nurses, as amongst some of the most important public servants to commit to the provision of good and quality healthcare and uphold ethical and professional behaviour at all times. While we understand the complexity and pressures under which you operate, as revolutionaries we have the obligation to utilise our positioning in society to win over greater sections of our people behind the banner of revolutionary change.
Incidents of uncaring behaviour, aggression towards patients and blatant disregard for life amongst a few in the nursing profession must be fiercely challenged.
As a revolutionary trade union, DENOSA must also lead the struggle to expose and isolate acts of misconduct and corruption in hospitals. We know of the high levels of corruption in the tendering system. We also recently learned about incidents of medical staff selling off corpses to greedy funeral undertakers. It is upon unions in the sector to stamp out this corruption and champion the cause for the transformation of our hospitals.
Revolutionaries cannot leave it to right wing opposition parties to blow the whistle on corruption in our health care system. We are as the defenders of the people have an obligation to wage an unmatched war on corruption.
With these words comrades, I wish you a successful CEC.
Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street
Braamfontein
2017
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 or Direct: +27 10 219-1339
Mobile: +27 82 821 7456
E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za
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