DECEMBER 2017 STRENGTHEN WORKPLACE ORGANISATION, DEEPEN CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS AND ADVANCE INTERNATIONALISM

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1 CEC BULLETIN DECEMBER 2017

2 Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL COMMENT 2. STATE OF THE UNION Introduction International Political Context National Political Context Socio-Economic Assessment Organisational Assessment CONCLUSION & WAY FORWARD PROGRAMME OF ACTION CEC DECLARATION 37 2

3 Editorial Comment GENERAL SECRETARY, COMRADE ZOLA SAPHETHA Comrades Please kindly receive profound revolutionary greetings from the first Central Executive Committee of the 11th National Congress of our gigantic, red and transformative national union. The Central Executive Committee took place on the 12th 13th December 2017, bringing to close a momentous year of our 30th anniversary of founding our organisation. The union celebrated its 30th Anniversary across all provinces through a programme that took all levels of the union leadership to workplaces. The purpose of the programme was to listen to members concerns, views and set up links with former leaders of the union. This programme gave an opportunity to the union leaders and members to learn more about the union s history in celebrating the three decades of the founding and development of NEHAWU. Indeed, the Central Executive Committee took place just a few days before the landmark ANC 54th National Conference gathered under the theme: Remember Tambo: Towards unity, renewal and radical socio-economic transformation. A conference described as a defining moment for organisational renewal and it further outlined a clear policy direction to advance the National Democratic Revolution {NDR}. This CEC bulletin reflects the CEC analysis on the international politics and current international balance of forces emanating from what is unfolding in the African continent, Latin America, Middle-East, Cuba and focuses on COSATU International Relations Strategy. The bulletin also outlines and gives a practical meaning on the World Federation of Trade Unions {WFTU} Nigeria Platform; a programme that is central in underpinning and strengthening the world class oriented trade union movement in the African Continent. It further reflects on the Great October Revolution of This bulletin therefore provides the conclusive view of the CEC that there is a paradigm shift in the international balance of forces compounded by the existing crisis facing capitalism. In this bulletin, we provide the CEC analysis on national politics in particular the recent developments on decisions taken by our liberation movement in its pursuance of the National Democratic Revolution {NDR} under the dysfunctional state of the alliance and hoped that the newly elected leadership of the 54th ANC Conference will seriously make interventions for the alliance whose central task is to drive the NDR. At the time we met at the CEC, the alliance was at its dysfunctional state and needs serious interventions for the alliance to be at the centre of driving our NDR. The comprehensive socio-economic assessment which reflects an overview on the macroeconomic context, next round of public service wage negotiations, health and postschooling education and CEC discussions are also revealed in this bulletin. The organisational assessment presented at the CEC which underpins the work of the union with key areas of focus among others; the Organisational Review Commission, the National Gender Policy and the Strategic Policy Framework (SPF) were also part of the discussions. The bulletin therefore will cover the conclusions on the above matters, the 11th national congress assessment, collective bargaining in different sectors, summarises branch congresses for implementation. 3

4 At the end of this bulletin we will provide concrete conclusions and way forward of the discussions that unfolded in the CEC of which the union should implement guided by the theme of our 11th National Congress: Strengthen Workplace Organisation, Deepen Class Consciousness and Advance Internationalism. Lastly, the 2018 Programme of Action and Declaration of the Central Executive Committee Declaration are also included in this bulletin. As we circulate this bulletin, on behalf of the national office bearers, we want to confirm that the national union welcome the outcomes of the 54th ANC conference under the stewardship of President Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, whom with his collective leadership have a clear mandate of repositioning the peoples movement to its glorious past. In our view, the outcomes of the landmark conference attests to the unions principle position for restoration of values and traditions of our congress movement. It further reaffirmed our support for Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa to succeed the former ANC President Comrade Jacob Zuma. In this regard, the national union welcomes with interest the ANC NEC January the 8th Statement which gave a line march to buffalo soldiers and also outlined the key priorities informed by the theme: 100 Years of Nelson Mandela, A year of renewal, unity and Jobs. Amandla!!! Matla!!! All Power!!! Aluta!!! Socialism Is The Future!!! Build It Now!! 4

5 State of the Union INTRODUCTION The first Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the 11th National Congress, which was an allround success, brought to a close the yearlong and successful celebrations of the 30th anniversary of founding our red and classorientated union of Bheki Mkhize and Yure Mdyogolo. The 54th National Conference of the ANC that took place on the December 2017 in Johannesburg, Gauteng, itself brought to a close of The Year of Oliver Reginald Tambo, whose distinguished and sterling leadership of our national liberation movement was celebrated with the clarion call of unity in the year of the 105th Anniversary of the African National Congress (ANC) was also a year of the momentous 6th Central Committee of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the 14th National Congress of the South African Communist Party (SACP). All these very important events within our movement also took place against the background of celebrations of the 100th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the 150th Anniversary of Das Kapital. It is indeed a tragedy that in the name of OR Tambo, numerous of the so-called OR Tambo Lectures were convened across the country to further deepen factional divisions ahead of the 54th National Conference, which convened under the banner Remember Tambo: Towards Unity, Renewal and Radical Socio-economic Transformation. Many of our members and former leaders took part in the conference as delegates and leaders of the ANC in their own right and together with millions of our people, we followed developments at that decisive and landmark conference. The masses of our people are yearning for nothing but urgency, seriousness and determination from the leadership of the ANC in tackling the overarching triple national crises of unemployment, poverty and inequality. If it is a consolation, we must note that over the past two quarters our economy has emerged from the technical recession. Though our country is increasingly going deep in indebtedness whereby every 15c from every R1 collected from taxpayers by SARS meant to address the crisis, would by 2020 end up going to the coffers of some foreign and domestic lenders. Yet some of the desperately needed resources obtained from this debt that is weighing so heavily on us, has been corruptly siphoned off to Dubai. Ourselves as representatives of public service workers are facing a very difficult collective round of negotiations in the midst of the junk status imposed on our country. Therefore, the CEC gave guidance for our members to be satisfied that the union has reached out to them in consultation and to unreservedly fight for their best interests and succeeded. So, the organisation and coordination especially at provincial and regional levels is key being the year of our branch congresses, we shall strengthen the basic unit of our organisation - where our members are, but also our regions as engines of service delivery while simultaneously executing our mandate in terms of the programme of action adopted by the CEC. We note with interest the developments in Zimbabwe in which the 37 years long rule by Robert Mugabe came to a dramatic end through military intervention. We shall study the situation and reach out to the progressive trade union movement there as part of the international programme of action. And this includes the intensification of our solidarity work with the Cuban revolution and Palestinian national liberation struggle in the face of an ultra-right-wing and aggressive posture of the American empire. Similarly, we will build on the progress that we have made in building our red international, WFTU, on our continental soil, while intensifying our solidarity work with the struggles of the Swaziland and Western Saharan people especially now in the face of an emerging treachery by the Zuma government on Morocco and Israel. This comes at the time when only recently, the 5th National Policy Conference said that the ANC calls for the intensification of the solidarity campaign in support of the People of Western Sahara and hotly debated whether to call for a downgrade 5

6 or total shutdown of the South African embassy in Tel Aviv. We must mobilise and agitate for a shutdown ahead of the ANC s hosting of a Global Solidarity Conference on Palestine this year. International Political Context We want to recap the international section by reminding ourselves of various key approaches taken by the national union when assessing the international situation. the infinite expansion of international finance capital and the excessive concentration of speculative finance in central banks. Although these features are relatively new, their presence does not imply a qualitatively new change in the operation of the capitalist system as a whole. What they do is underscore the exacerbation of the underlying tendencies in the system analysed by Lenin in imperialism. The systemic crisis is essentially imperialism, Comrades attending the CEC Firstly, the capitalist crisis in the world economy remains intense, deep and prolonged. We have also described it as primarily borne out of contradictions of capitalism, in which production is social and the fruits of labour are appropriated privately by a handful of people. The capitalist crisis has driven down standards of living and the livelihoods of millions of people throughout the world. Unemployment has risen and wages remains depressed. Although often coated with relatively short-lived, anaemic, upward or recovery cycles, all major western economies are experiencing a long downward drag. It is a consequence of this crisis that has worsened global poverty, a trend that has not diminished. As poverty increases, so is the overall growth of class and social inequality. The national congress highlighted two fundamental features of the present world capitalist economy that are worsening the crisis; moribund and decaying capitalism at its highest phase of development. This is a crisis of overproduction whose consequences main features include the increasing rate of exploitation, the decline of the rate of profit, the intense tendency to geopolitical competition, growing inter-imperialist rivalry over markets and an increasing need to subjugate dependent countries by imperialist capital. The facade separating Africa and the rest of the Third World from the international system is now widely unravelled. The circuits of capital are much more pronounced in Africa and other developing countries. This is because of internationalisation and a more integrated world economic territory. It is for all this reasons, emerging from the 11th national congress, we could identify in our national economy, the consequences of a crisis that has morphed into its multiple crises, in the environment, energy, food supply and almost every sphere of human existence. Berated by the rating agencies, the IMF and World Bank for inadequate compliance to neoliberal policy demands, the South African 6

7 government and treasury met with the IMF to discuss the country s outlook in an attempt to project economic growth upwards. From its World Economic Outlook update 2017, the IMF projected persisting negative growth rates for the region and slightly positive for South Africa. Among feeble growth inducing factors they cited political uncertainty and declining business confidence affecting foreign direct investment flows into the country as a key obstacle. These indications might as well inform conservative political attitudes during negotiations to improve worker s conditions. Any such reaction will worsen the situation for millions of working families, including widespread cuts and reversal in progressive policy pronouncements accompanying radical economic transformation. This is the general attitude in most countries and the anchor for widespread austerity attacks against working people The Great October Russian Revolution The question is what are the tasks? The union made a brief assessment in previous constitutional meetings to inform its approach. Among many, we believe there are three interrelated sets of tasks for the union. Firstly, it is important to develop a comprehensive programme for 2018 that helps us take stock of the achievements and lessons of the Great October revolution. Secondly we will pay close attention to the theory of Marxism-Leninism in our political schools, which guided the Bolshevik leadership of the revolution, because we operate in a period in which there is a relative withering away of ideological education affecting class consciousness. A full re-engagement with Marxist theory through political schools, workshops and discussion circles is crucial to counter the enormous influence the bourgeoisie exerts over our movement in general and more specifically over the course of our revolution. The aim of this undertaking will be about developing a well-trained, ideologically sharp cadre of the union, including shop-stewards, educators and organisers that appreciate the importance of a well-rounded cadreship for the trade union movement. It is important to revisit the history of the era of socialist construction in Russia, particularly the period after the death of Lenin. The CEC took place following the commemoration of centenary of the Great October Russian revolution on the 07 November The 19th international meeting of communists and worker s parties took place on the 2nd to 3rd November 2017 in St Petersburg and on the 5th to 7th November 2017 in Moscow, Russia under the theme, The 100th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution: the ideals of the Communist Movement, revitalising the struggle against imperialistic wars, for peace, socialism. Many other celebrations were held, including by movements and currents not so identical to Marxism. Finally, it is important to pay attention to the economics of class struggle in the period of the transition from capitalism to socialism. These issues are crucial because of enormous differences of opinion on the economics of socialism, whether in the erstwhile Soviet Union, China, Cuba and other socialist countries. These discussions should also inform much of our theorisation as we celebrate the Great October. Europe Since the counterrevolutions of the 90 s associated with the restoration of capitalism 7

8 in the Soviet Union, the European working class in the leading imperialist countries has been on a steady defensive retreat. The offensive against working people was consolidated in the late 70 s to early 80 s with Reagonomics and Thatcherism in the US and UK. The interruption of socialism has not brought about the end of history as anticipated by bourgeois intellectuals. It remains a relic of the Second World War American strategy to foster the capitalist integration of Europe under the hegemony of the United States. In this regard, BREXIT, the growth of the far right, the ongoing militarist drive, among other important aspects that mark the reality of the European Union are an expression of its deep crisis and of an offensive aimed at strengthening its federalist, neo-liberal and militarist pillars. A serious counter-offensive is demanded to strengthen the discredited capitalist system. It can be built on the basis of a renewed ideological strategy that builds on workers militancy in struggles against the ruling class imposed austerity and the impact of the capitalist crisis in the region. Middle East The unprecedented political, social and humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East remains troubling. It cannot be reversed without challenging policies and actions of imperialist countries, which are fomenting sectarian/ethnic divisions, directing their target to secular forces in the Middle East and destroying the unity and solidarity of the working people. In the prevailing conflict, terrorism and wars in the region is actively being destroyed. The situation in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan, the ongoing occupation of Palestine by Israel, as well as political crises in Lebanon and Egypt remain the key regional flashpoints of imperialist geopolitical meddling in regional affairs. There clearly is no military solution to the conflict in the Middle East in the interest of imperialism and Zionist Israel, its regional policeman. We reject the announcement by US President Donald Trump giving unwarranted and illegal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transferring his embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This decision is a clear violation of international law, which affirms Jerusalem as an occupied city. We continue our recognition that East Jerusalem is the capital city of Palestine. This irresponsible decision will bring about more tensions between Palestinians and Apartheid Israel. We call upon all our members and structures to join protests against this decision as part of our internationalism and support to the Palestinians. These protests are expected to roll out for a considerable period of time as the crisis plays itself out. Latin America Brazil is facing a complex transition worsened by an economic, political crisis, a contracting economy; The President was overthrown by a rightwing government that came to power through a parliamentary coup. It is deeply immersed in corruption scandals arising out of its close financial ties with private companies. Both the workers and communist movements are focusing on an electoral front of leftist parties and mass movements for 2018 elections to regain control of the state, to combat corruption and negate the re-emergence of neoliberal capitalist politics. Venezuela remains a major target in Latin America of the United States government for the spread of their own neoliberal democracy. Venezuela has defined its struggle along the pole of opposition to renewed imperialist aggressiveness. US imperialism is spending large sums of money funding various reactionary groups that are opposed to the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela and to create conditions of a civil war in the country and to overthrow the Maduro government. The actions of the US government have not gone unnoticed by popular Bolivarian forces. They have largely remained peaceful despite provocation by armed thugs and gangs of counter-revolutionaries, while the media conducts a smear campaign against the Maduro government. 8

9 Cuba For some considerable period of time, the US President Donald Trump has been speaking widely of his administration intentions to repudiate what he termed a one-sided deal with Cuba. Soon the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was to announce the downscale of the diplomatic staff of the US embassy in Havana. This follows claims of attacks on US diplomatic staff in Havana and 15 Cuban embassy staff in Washington was contemptuously sent home as a result. But it is very well known in Cuba that Washington has been contemplating regime change, mainly to overthrow socialism and to restore capitalism. The latest developments should therefore be analysed in that context and the diplomatic dispute furthers the orientation of that specific US policy. The union should also continue its international support of Cuba. On their part, the Cuban people have rallied behind the revolutionary Cuban government, enthusiastically reaffirming their commitment to socialism. For Cuba socialism is the bottom line and remains non-negotiable. We have also conveyed our heartfelt condolences on the 10 lives lost and massive destruction after the Caribbean was hit by a tropical storm Hurricane Irma. The union declared its intention to assist on the recovery and reconstruction efforts. Africa and the Crusade of Counter- Revolution Does the present Zimbabwe reality represent assimilation? What befell Zimbabwe in the past couple of months doesn t represent a qualitatively new situation from the previous political trajectory, with the exception that President Mugabe surrendered after 37 years in power. We also concur with the assessment of the vanguard party the SACP on the character of these developments. Among others the SACP asserts in its political report to the central committee the character of the transition was largely a coup and can be seen as the replacement of one ZANU-PF faction by a more powerful faction with control over the military. The SACP is also of the view that the same army general and the ZANU PF faction linked to Mnangagwa is the same force that has buttressed Mugabe s rule over the past 37 years. We agree with the above assessment. We also want to add the following that in these developments, the masses, who are the only force capable of creating a rupture with the Zimbabwean parasitic bourgeoisie, were largely reduced to the role of cheerleaders and not the chief protagonists of the much desired prosperity and social progress. If anything far from being a transition that revitalises the aborted national democratic revolution, it is evident that the Zimbabwean revolution is at the precipice of a deeper reversal. From the vision of the present national bourgeois leadership, it is the post land reform gains of the early 2000, which broke the colonial pattern of white land ownership that are far more vulnerable to erosion. Under this situation the working families and peasant s struggles cannot be extinguished with illusions. It must be stimulated by more revolutionary demands, to rebuild economy, the trade unions and other popular forces, through social alliances, towards an irreversible path without attempting to humanise bourgeois political power. Against all this it is not given that the new ruling elite, will or can continue as before and that the masses have unlimited capacity to impose terms far more favourable to it, although new resilient forces that are part of the dynamic present reality, could give added impetus. Swaziland The union had exchanges with our counterparts in Swaziland in August 15-18, It is very clear that the prevailing socioeconomic situation remains distressful. Government is claiming inability to pay salaries of public servants and is also 9

10 looting funds from cooperatives. The regime will use the 50/50 celebrations, to consume a large chunk of the 2018 budget and to affirm its power in the 2018 elections. On our part, we agreed with NAPSAWU, to join the counteroffensive, against the public service bill, which seek to restrict freedom of association and to prohibit trade union involvement in political affairs of the country. In line with the commitment we have made, the CEC confirmed the NEC principled decision for the NOB s to lead an official delegation to Swaziland, to engage widely in support of our Swaziland counterparts, against the public service bill, the sham elections, for democracy and unbanning of political parties. The wave of students should be supported and their legitimate demands on access to education. We will support SASCO to strengthen its relations with the Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS). Kenya The political situation in Kenya, one of the biggest East African regional economies and a key anchor of Washington national security strategy, continues to deteriorate. The legitimacy of the recently held national elections was questioned and the outcome was reversed by the courts. A new election was commissioned for October 2017 after massive fraud was uncovered and confirmed by the judiciary. Serious security lapses led to the death of protesters as the NASA supporters demanded electoral policy reform. The party of Raila Odinga, the main opposition leader of NASA who challenged the elections outcome, remained unregistered for the repeat election in late October Given the country s close alignment with western imperialism, the elections boycott by NASA placed the ruling Jubilee coalition party of Uhuru Kenyatta in disarray. It is certain that a questionable legitimacy does not bode well for Kenya, a regional lynchpin of US military strategy and as such, the withdrawal of NASA is therefore a source of great western distress. It is also likely to exacerbate tensions among the people and threaten a return to endemic political and ethnic violence that shaped previous elections, in which scores of innocent people lost their lives. One of the ground-breaking developments is the announcement of forming the Kenya Communist Party, which defines one of its aims, dismantling the Kenyan neo-colonial state and construction of a genuine national democratic state that is oriented towards building socialism in Kenya. Libya and The west imposition of capitalism with slavery A few years after the assassination of the Libyan Colonel Gaddafi, the US policy underwent a shift in focus of direct aggression from Africa to Syria in the Middle East, to further plans for a New Middle East. This shift did not mean Africa is cut out entirely from hard-nosed imperialist counterrevolutionary destabilisation. If anything, the imperialist bourgeoisie had reanimated the classical coercive colonial methods, although enlisting the service of comprador bourgeois forces to police imperialist economic interests remains a viable strategy in the interim. The efforts to stabilise Libya at the behest of the UN, after an imperialist war that disastrously plunged Libya into chaos, have at the core, sealing off Libya s Mediterranean coastline (the main entry point for hundreds of refugees entering Europe) and installing puppet, a regime reporting to Washington. Stability in Libya under the rule of US stooges is in the immediate interests of US-led imperialism to turn it into its vassal state. It remains to be seen whether Gaddafi son Saif al-islam, in a country badly split along ethnic and tribal lines, can play any meaningful role in restoring the country and preserving his father enormous social and economic legacy. The general course of human development cannot be mechanically reversed, it otherwise descends into barbarism. With the western imperialism military destruction of Libya, they induced a failure of the Libyan state. From Africa s most prosperous country, Libya is today the hive or terrorism, contraband activities, trafficking, gun smuggling and all sorts of illegal backward activities, which would otherwise not have occurred under Colonel Gaddafi. 10

11 Thousands of Africans are now traded in the illegal market as slaves. The number of slaves in Libya is estimated at over 30,000. Chilling testimonies from several survivors indicates a pervasive problem of murders, enslavement and scores of deaths in the Mediterranean. It is a legacy of the colonial history of slavery, worsened by unjust wars of imperialism and the wanton destruction of economic life through super-exploitation. In describing the situation, Abayomi Azikiwe mentions the following: The existence of slave marts in Libya is a by-product of imperialist intervention. This situation did not arise spontaneously and is a natural socially evolutionary process emerging from the failure of world capitalism struggling desperately to exert its influence over the majority of humanity. Contributing to this state of affairs has been the U.S.-NATO wars waged in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Palestine and other geo-political regions. Islamist terror groups were created and promoted by the imperialists. They have been utilized for decades by Washington, London and Brussels through formal networks operating in compliant territories such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. But the developments over the last few years, including the persisting crisis and dismal failure in Syria, will see the morphing of foreign policy orientation in the Trump administration. It is highly likely that the resource-hungry aggressive power of the United States will be redirected into active pursuit in Africa of its vital geopolitical interests. Both in the context of the ANC 54th national conference and the state foreign policy agenda, the CEC condemned the slave practice and called on Western imperialist and NATO countries that invaded Libya, to shoulder the burden of the current slave trade. The CEC also called on working people in Africa to unite against their own comprador bourgeoisie, to fight for an end to capitalist exploitation. The trade union movement should also do its part to ignite internationalism, which rejects the slave practice in Libya and other parts of the African continent. The decline in the position of liberation movements in Africa The liberation movements in post-colonial Africa have been weakening precipitously, in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola and many others including South Africa and many parts of the world. The factors underpinning this trend should be part of the programme to mark the Great October revolution, given the contribution of the Soviet Union in struggles for national liberation. In the final analysis, the trade union movement and revolutionaries confronts the questions posed in the 11th national congress. Is the decline of contemporary African liberation projects inevitable, a few years after liberation? Has the liberation movement abandoned the legitimate expression of the national democratic demands of the colonially oppressed? Congress also observed that although pre-capitalist forms of social organisation had been relatively transformed, the colonial structure that fostered active under-development of our African societies remains in place. This is the fundamental question being posed by revolutionary forces including in South Africa today, whether the national bourgeoisie retains its revolutionary potential as an ally to the working class and other classes to pursue the completion of the tasks of national liberation towards socialism or whether it will seek incorporation into the colonial structure and capitulate to a subordinate of imperialism? The beauty of these reflections is that at least in Latin America, the liberation forces are grappling with these questions, unlike others who rely on muzzling the debate, at the back of arrogance associated with newly found state power. Strengthening the WFTU work in Africa and the Nigeria Platform From its 3rd Pan-African Conference held in Abuja, Nigeria, the WFTU places the African continent as a priority. The African continent is the richest in mineral resources and the most ruthlessly exploited. The CEC, highlighted the need for all our provinces and regions to familiarise themselves with its 4-year programme, 11

12 the Nigeria Platform, which details specific actions to underpin the strengthening of the class oriented trade union movement. The main demands of the WFTU in Africa includes: the immediate cancellation of the African debt; the socialisation of the main means of production; the limit to and drastic reduction of military expenditures, improvement of the life expectancy and elimination of social inequality and discrimination, creating dignified employment for the poor, the unemployed and the immigrants; guarantee of access to portable drinking water, the creation of safe, quality housing for working families, the nationalisation of African land; to stop the export of waste into Africa; to preserve our environment and the ecosystem to prohibit harmful waste imports; to end the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMO s); prevention and control of infections. In addition, we demand an end to all imperialist interventions in Africa; to tackling the root cause of migration and refugees, to the destructive role of the multinationals. Having familiarised ourselves with the Nigeria platform, it is important to translate this into the national union s programmes, including strengthening the offensive against reformism of ITUC, who promote class cooperation. This will be followed by the WFTU ideological training programme agreed upon by affiliates in the first quarter of On COSATU international strategy We have raised serious concerns regarding the diminishing of COSATU influence internationally. There s reason to suspect that this is not fortuitous but by design. We should re-emphasise our approach for a strong, vibrant and influential COSATU on international affairs, including a strong campaigning influence especially in the continent. In this regard, we remain steadfast in the insistence for the implementation of the COSATU resolutions on international affiliation to the WFTU. The 2017 November CEC of COSATU confirmed our long held suspicion that there s a criminal conspiracy against the implementation of resolution of COSATU, which spans over three congresses in almost a decade that COSATU should affiliate to the WFTU. It was clear in the last CEC that the resolution will never be implemented in the course of this term. The CEC has adopted the view of ITUC and completely ignored WFTU. While the WFTU finds nothing wrong with COSATU dual affiliation and showed respect for COSATU resolutions, ITUC has issued threats, blackmail and intimidation, including threatening to withdraw money it allocated to COSATU to appease us with meaningless projects whilst they offer us no solidarity, in our strikes and struggles for our rights except preparing to fight the implementation of this resolution on dual affiliation. We have put it on record several times that the constitution of ITUC does not prohibit dual affiliation, although even if it did, as an independent organisation COSATU should not be dictated to by another organisation on what resolutions it should take. At face value, the class oriented federation (WFTU) has been rejected by the COSATU CEC. This means that COSATU has rejected the federation of Leslie Masina, Leon Levy, J.B Marks, Billy Nair, Stephen Dlamini, John Nkadimeng Ray Alexander, Wilton Mkwayi, Mark Shope, Joe Kolokeng, Kay Moonsamy, John Taolo Gaetsewe, Archie Zola Zembe Sibeko, Aaron Pemba, Mzwandile Makwayiba and our stalwarts Eric Stalin Mtshali, Billy Nair. This is a shame and a travesty. It means COSATU CEC has rejected SACTU, its predecessor in favour of ITUC in spite of the resolution calling for the affiliation to both. It means the COSATU CEC has ignored a resolution coming from its own congress in favour of a federation, ITUC, which in 1958, came to South Africa to demand that SACTU should break its alliance with the ANC and SACP or the congress alliance. This is the ITUC that was anti-communist and remains so till this day and called SACTU a communist organisation. This is ITUC a federation that deprived South African trade unions of their militant consciousness, of its right to struggle, which opposed calls for sanctions. Against this background, the CEC directed the NOB s to deduct from its subscription to 12

13 COSATU, a portion of the fees remitted to ITUC in COSATU s subscription. We shall not compensate ITUC for enslaving us, for opposing our freedom from apartheid and capitalist exploitation. For denigrating us and breaking the picket lines, for weakening our sanctions and boycott campaigns. The CEC directed the NOB s to lead a massive counter-offensive against this conspiracy which aims at dividing our federation and constitutes the interference of ITUC. We are going to develop a clear programme and continue engaging all affiliates of the federation on the serious implications regarding how this matter was mishandled and ensure that this resolution in accordance with the resolutions passed in previous congresses is passed. The CEC agreed not to allow a new resolution on this matter to be taken before the implementation of the existing resolutions. National Political Context As NEHAWU, we can be proud of the political intervention that our October 2016 NEC had made in calling for the resignation of Jacob Zuma as the President of the country and his succession by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, having come to a conclusion that Zuma s leadership has plunged the country into an untenable and disastrous trajectory as it lurched from crisis to crisis. In this regard, we were torchbearers; we blazed the trail for other progressive forces in our movement to follow. This created enough pressure that for the first time a section of the ANC NEC found its voice. The ANC parliamentary caucus and its representatives in the committees also took the initiative of fighting state-capture away from the opposition. Our active and conscious participation in the contestations leading to the landmark ANC conference also placed the stakes very high for us, as we nailed our colours to the mast and influenced COSATU in favour of the Ramaphosa-led leadership block. Therefore we did not underestimate the implications of this if somehow the NDZ had emerged victorious. The repercussions of this dangerous block would have been severe especially at the provincial level. The 54th ANC National Conference The 54th National Conference of the ANC was bound to be a decisive landmark not only in the history of the ANC but also in the evolution of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). On this event ride the future of the Alliance, the Presidency of the republic in 2018 and beyond, the momentous political discussions that are abound to be heard at the SACP Special National Congress and 13th COSATU Congress this year and the electoral fortunes of the ANC itself in Others have also said that this conference was about the future of South Africa and this may also be true firstly given the dominant role the ANC is playing in our national life and secondly because as a ruling party its outcomes would determine whether the organisation itself has a fighting chance of redeeming and renewing itself and of ridding itself of the scourge of corruption, especially the state capture. GAUTENG PROVINCIAL CHAIRPERSON COMRADE LULAMILE SIBANDA But we remained confident in our judgement and we had to gear ourselves for any eventuality. It is however important to disabuse ourselves of any illusions that may exist within our ranks pertaining to the CR17 by underscoring the following. Rallying around the CR17 was a range of class interests, that was actually composed of contradictory ideological and political forces but that for the moment were essentially united around the necessity of dislodging the Gupta state-capture, turning around the degeneration 13

14 of the ANC and generally concerned about the state of governance and the socioeconomic plight of the masses of our people. The Alliance and the more radical phase of our transition For us as the organised working class in COSATU and SACP, overriding everything in the unfolding political situation must be the question of how NC PROVINCIAL CHAIRPERSON COMRADE JACQUES CUPIDO to forge a more radical second phase of our transition in which our class would play a key role rather than just hoping for the best whilst tailing behind other class forces in the ANC leadership contest. Therefore, given what has transpired over the past 23 years, and what we have experienced under the ANC governments led by Mbeki and Zuma respectively, the question that we must answer at this juncture is what kind of alignment and correlation of class forces has the potential or capacity of carrying out radical socioeconomic transformation and better reposition the ANC and Alliance. When we developed the 2015 Plan as COSATU we came to a conclusion that the post-1994 period has significantly changed the terrain of the NDR such that its organisational form expressed in the ANC-led Alliance was no longer corresponding to the content of a more radical Morogoro perspective of the NDR. It was clear that this form of alignment advantaged other class forces that are concentrated within the ANC which controlled state power, at the expense of the working class which is supposed to be the primary motive force of the NDR. Using the notion that the ANC is the leader of the Alliance, these other class forces were easily able to marginalise COSATU and SACP. Thus, we called for the reconfiguration of the Alliance and subsequently at its Polokwane conference in 2007 the ANC itself adopted a resolution that declared that the Alliance is the strategic political centre (and not the ANC on its own). This resolution was adopted largely because of the influence that the working class was exerting in the ANC at that time in the battle against the 96 Class Project. But our experience since then suggests that this was only on paper and if anything the dysfunctionality of the Alliance and the marginalisation of COSATU and SACP continued. The 14th Congress of the SACP has now not only brought the issue of the reconfiguration of the Alliance back on the table, but it has also raised other far-reaching related issues on class and political alignment. The SACP resolved that it must actively contest elections and that it was going to consider modalities through which it would contest and that this may, or may not be, within the umbrella of a re-configured Alliance. Furthermore, it resolved that whilst it remains firmly committed to a revolutionary national democratic Alliance, and a re-configured Alliance that reaffirms, in policy as well as in practice, that the Alliance is the strategic political centre the SACP must play a leading role in developing a common platform for a Left Popular Front of working class and progressive forces. For our part, at the 6th Central Committee of COSATU and our own 11th National Congress we noted the debates that were raging within the SACP on these matters but reaffirmed our support for the ANC in the next elections and undertook to engage with the outcomes of the 14th Congress of the SACP. Clearly, the outcomes of the SACP congress and indeed the eventual outcomes of the 54th ANC Conference impose upon us serious and momentous discussions on these matters within our ranks. COSATU It may be easy to fall into a trap of reading too much into the successful COSATU mass action on the 27th September 2017 that was carried out jointly with 14

15 the SACP. Certainly on that day, COSATU has shown its potential and inspired hope that it can recover back to the glorious heights that it scaled in the past. The ongoing process of developing a mid-term strategic perspective for COSATU provides us with an opportunity of dealing with all the above strategic and tactical questions of the NDR from a standpoint of the progressive trade union movement and the working class in general. FREESTATE PROVINCIAL CHAIRPERSON COMRADE MOEKETSI NAPO However, whilst the federation has turned its back on the destabilising internal battles of the past, in the course of 2017 some underlying serious weaknesses and narrow right-wing tendencies that were there during the time of the previous General Secretary have come out to the surface, especially regarding the international dimension of COSATU s outlook. Our giant militant trade union centre is handand-foot tied to the class-collaborationist labour-aristocracy of ITUC. It remains a red trade union movement locally but the opposite internationally. All manner of patronages and flattering gestures as well as coercion are used to make it undermine its own resolution to affiliate to WFTU. And disturbingly there is no shame; instead a false impression is given that it is undermining its own resolution voluntarily. The problem is that there seems to be a lot that is riding on this, yet we cannot see any benefits of being in ITUC all these years as even its approaches to international trade matters are openly biased in favour of the narrow interests of the workers in the core imperialist centres. Some of the COSATU unions whose leaders are passionate about ITUC and its GUFs have shown themselves to be frightened and obedient to their labour-aristocratic masters. To this day, COSATU has not re-established its links with the Cuban trade union centre, the CTC despite NEHAWU s encouragement. None of such unions have such links with corresponding CTC affiliates and take up solidarity actions on the Cuban blockade or Palestinian campaigns. They know how to steer clear off the imperialist red-lines. Ever since we have started to participate in the October 3rd International Day of Action of WFTU in 2014, suddenly COSATU pre-emptively commits us to take part in the ITUC programme of the 7th October that never existed all these years at least locally. Yet the same ITUC unions rely on us when it comes to mass mobilisation and the federation itself spends our scarce resources in the activities of an international trade union centre that silently condones imperialist wars, the oppression of the Palestinians and that is used to undermine the Bolivarian revolution and other progressive and anti-imperialist forces in Latin America and Middle-east. Hence, in part because of its excessive orientation towards the global-north and ITUC, COSATU is now disoriented locally, it is outmanoeuvred even by FEDUSA in international forums and it is generally withdrawn in key political developments unfolding in the country. The NDZ orientation of the some leaders in COSATU compounds this local disorientation. Therefore, we need to take stock and determine our posture with regard to the resolution on COSATU s affiliation to WFTU. It is no longer a worthwhile approach to put pressure on the leadership to affiliate, it has become counterproductive, but there will have to be consequences. But all of these developments do not change the basic thesis of Marxism-Leninism drawn from practical experiences in international trade unionism. If anything the ideological contradictions between the class-orientation of WFTU on the one hand and the classcollaborationist ITUC on the other hand confirms this thesis. Karl Marx was the first to observe the phenomenon of what he called labour-aristocracy in the last quarter of the 19th century when capitalism entered its monopoly or imperialist stage - when leaders of workers in practice sided with the narrow interests of their imperialist countries despite 15

16 their rhetorical postures in the believe that this is good for their national membership. Lenin himself spoke about the destructive influence of this tendency in the face of the betrayal of the working class by leaders of the Second International who sided with their domestic bourgeoisies in favour of the first major imperialist war, the First World War. In fact, the LIMPOPO PROVINCIAL CHAIRPERSON COMRADE CALVIN TSHAMANO split from WFTU of the western trade unions on the back of the Second World War reflects the embedded ideological contradictions in the international trade union movement, in which western unions were beholden to their national bourgeoisie and imperialism at the expense of proletarian internationalism and in the process using unions in the global-south in which their own countries have historical colonial ties to foist their hegemony and to undermine the class oriented trade union movement. Class collaboration and class orientation are the two main tendencies in the international trade union movement and COSATU and some of its affiliates are caught in the middle. This of course does not mean that ITUC and its GUFs does not have militant elements within its fold. Socio-Economic Assessment Macro-economic context The South African economy is now in the clutches of a low-growth trap, since the recession of This underscores the failure of the Nine Point Plan that was adopted after a downward turn in 2014 on the back of the steady but low recovery trajectory that began in Whilst there are external factors causing this, particularly the low demand and collapsed prices of key mineral exports, by and large the primary factors are internal. Amongst others, these include the stifling domination by the white owned monopolies in key sectors, lack of the beneficiation of mineral resources, extreme income and wealth inequalities and the failure of Neoliberal macroeconomic policies. This Neoliberal macroeconomic framework that has been entrenched since GEAR means that even some of the progressive objectives of the National Development Plan (NDP) may not be realised. In fact, we can say that over the past five years since its adoption the NDP has failed even when assessed on its own terms, including its economic growth targets. The recent 5th National Policy Conference which was preparing for the 54th National Conference of the ANC said that the NDP should be reviewed to resonate with the objectives of radical economic transformation and incorporation of the key drivers. In the first place, this is an admission that the NDP was a departure from the thrust of the Polokwane and Mangaung outcomes. Ironically, whilst the ANC s leadership arrogantly rejected calls by COSATU and SACP for the rewriting of the economic chapters of the NDP, this policy conference said that key focus areas for such a review are Chapter 3 on the economy and employment. Public Sector The rhetoric around radical economic transformation continues to incorporate the notion of building a capable developmental state. But at the same time, privatisation and outsourcing are also placed on the agenda. The 5th National Policy Conference of the ANC calls for state procurement to be enhanced as an empowerment lever as it represents a significant market for businesses, large and small, and should be viewed as a key instrument for empowering emerging black businesses. In actual fact, this is a call for more outsourcing and privatisation and it goes against resolutions of the previous ANC conferences and Alliance Summits. 16

17 The union has unfortunately shifted away from a proactive public service campaign, often merely reacting to agentisation or outsourcing without much impact as underscored by our response to the Border Management Authority Bill and Foreign Services Bill. We have taken decisions on these matters that have not been vigorously followed up. Currently, there are about employees on government s payroll that are actually doing public service work as interns or contracted under the guise of the Community Work Programme and the Expanded Public Works Programme. establishing a set of seven institutions, bodies and commissions to take the National Health Insurance process forward. According to the compositions outlined in the gazette, these structures are going to be dominated by powerful groups with vested interests and that have been vehemently opposed to the NHI. These include the corporate private hospital groups, technocrats, and other special interest Health It is important to appreciate that despite the cut in the rate of growth of government spending in general, health remains one of the consistently growing items in the national budget. It is also important to note that the ANC has called on government to ensure that legislative framework on the NHI must be put in place before the end of the current term of government. This should help to expedite the implementation of the NHI. In 2017, we have seen an important step been taken to use the tax rebates enjoyed by members of medical aid schemes to finance the strengthening of primary health care. However, the Community Health Workers are still not absorbed into the public service although the policy has been finalised. This is another issue that we should be taking up proactively through the public servicing delivery campaign, GAUTENG PROVINCIAL SECRETARY COMRADE TSHEPO MOKHERANYANA including the plight of the medical graduates that the provinces are not employing despite the extreme lack of doctors in the public health system. The Minister of Health issued a gazette groups such as Medical Schemes, the Actuarial Society, academic and research organisations, and elite professional associations. This gazette takes the process of the implementation of the NHI backwards as it seems as if it is an attempt to reopen the possibility for the creation of a multi-payer system rather than a single-payer system as prescribed by the White Paper on the NHI. Post-schooling education MPUMALANGA PROVINCIAL SECRETARY COMRADE WELCOME MNISI The post-schooling education sector, in particular higher education, has been engulfed by instability over the past three years that began at Wits University over the hiking of fees and subsequently evolving into a broadly supported demand of free post-schooling education. In November 2017, President Jacob Zuma eventually released the report of the Fees Commission under duress of court action. As NEHAWU, we join numerous other progressive organisations in rejecting the report, which was already fated to fail as President Jacob Zuma excluded the Minister in establishing the commission. Whereas the 52nd and 53rd conferences of the ANC called for free and quality higher education and training for poor 17

18 and working class students at least at the undergraduate level, the terms of reference of President Jacob Zuma s commission basically directed the commission to inquire whether it was feasible or not to introduce free postschooling education. Ironically, just before the release of this report the 5th National Policy Conference of the ANC reaffirmed the resolutions of Polokwane and Organisational Assessment 11th National Congress Assessment KZN PROVINCIAL SECRETARY COMRADE PHAKAMA NDUNAKAZI Mangaung. And called for a new financial support model to ensure that academically capable poor, working class and middle strata students are supported to access higher education, and receive fully subsidised free higher education and training by 2018, though it added that subject to availability of funds. In relation to the finalisation of the White Paper on Post School Education and Training Implementation Plan as well as the review of the National Skills Development Strategy 3, the union will monitor and engage the department on these and other key issues in the sector to ensure that they are not lost, this includes the demands of our recent march to the department. Similarly, we will be vigilant to ensure that the progressive outcomes of the TVET Imbizo that was held in October 2017 are not lost. The Declaration of the TVET Imbizo which has been signed by all stakeholders captures some of these imperatives, including the strengthening of relationships between colleges, universities, SETAs and industry, the creation of the ongoing TVET forum, which will bring to the table student representatives, College administrations, and senior officials from DHET and College Councils. Indeed, putting everything together, the 11th national congress appreciated and welcomed the contribution made by all present including the discipline demonstrated by delegates given the context of challenges that faced us on which many of our detractors pinned their hopes as they indicated prior to the national congress. What is even more commendable and disappointing to our detractors is the fact that the contest of leadership was managed in a manner that the congress did not collapse and the mood of accepting the outcomes prevailed successfully. In overall, the 11th national congress was a better and successful congress. Our declaration building from the continuous spirit of our 10th National Congress in saying that Thus we emerge from this congress as a maturing and biggest affiliate of our federation COSATU and a leading affiliate of WFTU on our continent, with confidence and determination to strengthen, deepen and advance our work on all that we have achieved on the key pillars of our programme of action since our last congress. Indeed, this is a befitting clarion call leading to our 12th national congress in The 11th national congress reiterated and affirmed that NEHAWU is proud of its history and confident of its future as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. 18 At the end, the congress said it is looking

19 forward to the outcomes of the ANC 5th National Policy Conference that begins on the 30th June 05th July 2017 and of course the SACP 14th Congress that is taking place on the 10th 15th July Our declaration, in this regard argued that The theme of the SACP Congress: Defend, Advance, Deepen the National Democratic Revolution The Vanguard Role of the SACP, gives confidence to us that once again our vanguard party shall seize the moment to provide strategic direction and rescue our NDR. Lastly, our declaration says As we rise to bring the 11th Congress to a close, we underscore the principle that the unity and cohesion of the union of Bheki Mkhize and Yure Mdyogolo is sacrosanct. We take to heart the key message from the SACP that it is easy to destroy and yet it not easy to build. Therefore, as we gear ourselves to renew democratic mandate of our branches, regions and provinces going forward, we shall place this principle of unity and cohesion at the centre. In this regard, the national executive committee directed all structures of the national union to pass the congress as it has come and gone and unite behind the elected national office bearers through political and organisational support across. The national executive committee further directed the national office bearers as part of their constitutional responsibility to work tirelessly within the spirit of the congress to cement unity and cohesion using the Constitution of the national union, policies and their political maturity as an overarching instrument guiding them in pursuit of the imperatives of the national union unity project across structures. Organisational Review Commission Organisational Review Commission is a commission established by the central executive committee as its commission to focus on the following issues and report to the central executive committee progress on its work. Given that this was the first central executive committee of the 11th national congress therefore the union needed appoint new members of the commission in order to be in line with the term of office of the national office bearers. In this regard, the following names are members of the commission: General Secretary as a chairperson, Cde Zola Saphetha; Deputy General Secretary, Cde December Mavuso; Head of Secretariat, Cde Thulani Skosana, NC Provincial Secretary, Cde Sabata Jonas; EC Provincial Secretary, Cde Miki Jaceni; NW Provincial Chairperson, Cde Elizabeth Mogotsi; FS Provincial Secretary, Cde Desmond Mogotsi; GP Provincial Secretary, Cde Tshepo Mokheranyana; KZN Provincial Chairperson, Cde Siyanda Zungu; LP Provincial Chairperson, Cde Calvin Tshamano; NC Provincial Chairperson, Cde. Jacques Cupido; WC Provincial Secretary, Cde Eric Kweleta, MP Provincial Secretary, Cde Welcome Mnisi; Head: Policy Development Unit, Cde Sidney Kgara; Head: EDUSEC, Cde Zweli Thoba; Head: International, Cde Lucian Segami; Head: Legal, Head: Cde Stuart Marshall; Head: OSEC, Cde. Sabata Jonas, Parliamentary Officer, Cde Tengo Tengela and National Education Officer, Cde Mbulelo Mandlana. Strategic Policy Framework (SPF) Given the fact that both the 10th and 11th national congresses have missed the opportunity to review our strategic policy framework and ten-year-plan which supposedly elapsed long time ago. The Organisational Review Commission noted however that the 9th national congress NORTH WEST PROVINCIAL SECRETARY COMRADE PATRICK MAKHAFANE in 2010 had intention to robustly review and adopt a new reviewed strategy and tactics of the national union supported by a revised long term plan unfortunately due to the anxiety and anger of members represented by delegates at this congress could not manage to achieve these. 19

20 The Commission has recently established that our SPF was adopted in 2001 as an accurate and correct information not in 1998 as initial indicated. Despite this clarity, the commission recognises that the SPF and 10-year-plan needed to be reviewed as per the intention of the 9th national congress and directive of the first central executive committee of the same congress as it existed far too long of a lifespan of policies of organisations in the space in which we exist hence its review is long overdue. The conditions that informed the formulation and adoption of the SPF at the time have since drastically changed and dictate therefore that the union engages in a holistic and deliberate rethink of its long-term strategy. In view of the commission, the review process is an opportunity for the union to introspect its internal mechanisms employed in fulfilling its historical mandate, the external factors at play that constitute the totality of material conditions in which it prosecute the revolutionary duty and tactics that it choose to employ in carrying out of its task. Indeed, it is very important to collect the aspects in the current SPF that deepen the struggles which were waged during its existence so that they can be taken forward to build on rather than to abandon them, whilst the union needed to be frank about the areas of weakness on the other hand, that demand collective attention. WC PROVINCIAL SECRETARY COMRADE ERIC KWELETA This review process is the necessary attempt to revamp our thinking and perspective about the true nature of our struggle at the moment and the totality of class forces at play, internally as well as externally. In the process, we should attempt to reimagine totally a new paradigm shift that respond to present-day challenges both political and organisational, so that we build a union that is better able to, realistically and in a measured fashion, win victories for its members and the working class broadly. Strengthening Seamless Machinery The national executive committee post the 9th national congress agreed that we need coherent and seamless machinery from head office to branches to operationalise our organisational work based on a national program of action. Immediately, it clarified the meaning as horizontal and vertical integration as follows: Horizontal Integration Horizontal integration serves to strengthen the seamless machinery hence the union must institutionalise and strengthen the convening of weekly and monthly meetings within service centres between service centre heads at national and provincial levels. This has been a practice post 9th and 10th national congresses but after the special national congress in 2014, the implementation of this permanent feature was no longer consistent or regularised. When head office service centres practised this feature it assisted the integration of union work at head office in driving the implementation of the national program from the centre. At the level of provinces, the implementation of this feature has been inconsistent and progress uneven. Having read the provincial reports and progress registered as presented in the 11th national congress, we agree that our priority going forward is to strengthen horizontal integration at the level of provinces and regions as we strive to strengthen workplace organisation including regularising at head office as a permanent feature of our work. Vertical Integration Our first priority on vertical integration, is to respond to the clarion made our constitutional structures inter alia,...drastically change and improve the way our organisers and all officials 20

21 work and how they report. There must be a seamless flow of information between organisers in a sector throughout the union... equally there must be seamless approach between the rest of service centres from head office to provinces. The vertical integration must also find expression in the activities of head office service centres implementing jointly with provinces. These include NSMT, Midyear Review, Provincial Organizers Forums, Education and Health Subcommittees, Campaigns, education and training, case handling, policy issues, international campaigns and many more. What this mean is that seamless machinery must be about practical work. The Midyear Review as a platform for evaluation of the implementation of the national workplan will be convened in July of each year starting from Strengthening Workplace Organisation The 11th National Congress directed that all provinces must update the branch data as we set our eyes on the year branch congress in The national executive committee of October 2017 agreed that the updated branch data will be presented in the 1st central executive committee of 11th National Congress. The table below indicates the updated data from all provinces as of November 2017 to help the national to prepare better for the branch congresses The branch congresses in 2018 present an opportunity to strengthen our branches and workplaces and ensure that they are fully functional in line with the criteria of an ideal and or active branch of the union. An ideal or active branch of NEHAWU is required to have; full complement of BOBs, a properly constituted BEC, convene regular meetings of the BOBs and BEC, convene monthly general meetings, meet with management to address grievances of members, represent members in disciplinary hearings and have functional substructures. Organisational Subjective Weaknesses The national office bearers through the implementation of their programme observed and agreed that the following issues constitute organisational crisis as they impact negatively to the progress registered since 9th national congress, in fact a reversal of progress. These issues were presented at the 1st national executive committee of the 11th congress and adopted for immediate attention. The end of discussion on these issues the national office bearers were directed to develop an organisation renewal perspective responding to these cross cutting structural and systemic challenges in the national union needed to addressed urgently as follows: (a) Lack of common understanding on what constitute an ideal branch of our calibre as the national union. (b) Improper and unconstitutional composition of the branch executive committees (c) Inconsistencies on the elections of shop stewards and application of the union policy on election and conduct. (d) Absence and or collapse of union structures and substructures from the level of branch, region and province across the national union. (e) (f) Poor capacity of our shop stewards across the national union resulting in poor service to members. This is as a result of lack of training and/or poor quality of training we provide. Poor performance and poor supervision of many of our staff especially our organisers. (g) That there is absence of a national programmatic cohesion and strategic focus. This has resulted into possibilities where, for all intents and purposes, provinces run its programme outside a nationally determined programme. (h) Poor case handling and management EC PROVINCIAL SECRETARY COMRADE MIKI JACENI at the level of regions resulting to dismissals of many members hence many attempts to sue the national union with no consequences at all for such organiser s 21

22 (i) (j) (k) conducts. Poor attendance, reports and discussions in regional executive committee meetings across the national union. This is as a result of lack of capacity and appreciating the essence of this important constitutional structure. That we still have serious financial constraints that are hampering the expansion of some of our programmes. That part of this problem is not the lack of funds but mismanagement, poor planning and wrong deployment of resources. General failure to comply with the nonnegotiables as identified by the national union as permanent features that must regularised. In addition to the above analysis, there were challenges identified during branch congresses in 2014 which must not be repeated in 2018 if we are serious about strengthening workplace organisation as directed by the 11 congress. Both the Midyear Review meeting and National Executive Committee highlighted these challenges as contributing factors which the union must improve from (or learn lessons from) as follows: (a) Poor co-ordination of the program which resulted into situations where branches were left on their own to prepare and convene congresses without any guidance and presiding over from the upper structure. This contributed to failures to adhere to the branch congress guidelines, for example notices were not issued on time. (b) Though some branches were able to follow the guidelines but in some regions there was some resistance to compliance. Yet, the guidelines were meant to establish uniformity, eliminate uncertainty and irregularities, etc. (c) Quorum in most branches remains a big challenge of concern which often forced the reconvening of congresses. This was prevalent in branches where shop stewards were not convening membership general meetings as regular feature as per the prescript of the union s Constitution, Chapter 4 (14) (1). (d) Congresses were reduced to forums to (e) (f) raise complaints about poor service, lack of visibility of leadership and poor communication. There were also instances where comrades attempted to convene branch congresses in workplaces that do not meet the necessary threshold for a branch. Some regions cited the period given to them as inadequate to run congresses in their branches. (g) The general failures of complying with standard reporting template resulted to comrades choosing to use their preferred method of reporting, this made it difficult for head office and provincial war rooms to detect challenges on time for intervention(s). (h) The guidelines developed provided clarity to a process that must be followed in establishing substructures as we run branch congresses unfortunately were not followed to the later by provinces. As a result, reports from provinces failed to indicate whether substructures were established or not. WC PROVINCIAL CHAIRPERSON COMRADE PHILISWA NZIMANDE Indeed, the first step in defending our base as directed by the special national congress is to make sure there is an organisation on the ground. The branch congresses provide an opportunity to consolidate and to build a strong workplace organisation that is capable to represent the interests and actual aspirations of members at the level of the workplace first and foremost. The challenges that confronted us during branch congresses in 2014 as reflected above brings us to a question of capacity of our regions and coordination of union activities by provinces, in this regard, the 22

23 union must pay attention to this layer which is closer to workplaces and members (regions) as we prepare for branch congresses next year. Having done the diagnoses organisational pillar then the national office bearers convened a two-day session focusing on these challenges for purposes of development a perspective as particularly on organisational priorities. Of importance to note is that the diagnosis did not NORTH WEST PROVINCIAL CHAIRPERSON COMRADE ELIZABETH MOGOTSI focus on other pillars of the national union as the process of SPF and 10-year-place review will help us to focus on the other three pillars. Following the session of the NOBs, a full day meeting with all heads of service centres was convened where the perspective was presented in detail for discussion and enrichment and the joint meeting of the NOBs, Heads of Service Centres, National Organisers and National Officers across service centres took place thereafter to enrich the perspective. We are confident that the organisational renewal key tasks for the union will help a great deal in clarifying the roll-out of branch congress and the process of revamping structures, substructures, forums of the national union including elections of shop stewards, etc. Key Organisational Renewal Tasks on Organisational Priorities Strengthen workplace organisation that is political conscious misunderstanding about the composition of the branch executive committee and how is elected. In this document, we intend to clarify how shop stewards, branch office bearers get elected and how shop steward committee and branch executive committee are constituted. In terms of the national union a branch is a workplace/institution potentially more than 50 members can be recruited in order to establish a branch executive committee. While a workplace with 10 members or less than 50 members is regarded a workplace not a branch hence a shop steward per 10 members shall be elected and also establish shop stewards committee. Types and nature of union branches (branch and cluster branch) o Branch is established in departments, institutions or companies where there is a minimum of 50 members of the union in good standing; and o Clustered branch is established by means of grouping together a number of institutions or companies where one or more of them does not have the minimum number of members in good standing to be launched as a branch. This is done in order to ensure that every member of the union is serviced and that they fall within a constitutional structure of the union, i.e. a branch. These are typically established within a sector, area or town. Election of a shop steward NEHAWU Constitution sets minimum criteria for members and officials to be eligible to stand for election to office at various levels. At branch level, the Constitution stipulates that at every workplace in which there are at least 10 members but less than 50, the members must elect shop steward/s and establish a shop stewards committee and where there are at least 50 union members, the members must elect shop stewards and establish a Branch Executive Committee every four years representing various work sections in which the union has members. It further stipulates that any member in good standing may be elected as a shop steward if he or she has been a member in good standing for a minimum period of at least one (1) year. There have been serious confusion and 23

24 Branch Congress The branch congress is a governing body of each branch structure of the union convened in each four (4) years. It must be attended by all branch office bearers and members in good standing. At least half of membership must be present before the commencement of branch congress and this dictate that the branch secretary must verify membership before the branch congress commences to confirm the quorum and authenticity of members at the congress. The branch congress elects the branch office bearers not the branch executive committee. Branch Executive Committee The branch executive committee is made of the branch office bearers, all shop stewards who are not office bearers and the coordinator of each committee and/or substructure at a workplace within the branch. The national office bearers, in their strategic session held on the 25th to 26th November 2017, decided to propose to the central executive committee as a policy decision that coordinators must be elected from the constituencies based shop stewards who are not office bearers to avoid to have a bloated branch executive committee. The NOBs further proposed to the central executive committee that at the branch level, there shouldn t be any committee, sub-structure or forum except branch paralegal team to avoid confusion and power relations amongst structures and leadership. In this regard, NOBs concluded that committees, substructure and forums must start from region up to national level. Branch Coordinators All our branches shall have the following coordinators as part of the branch executive committee elected from shop stewards who are not office bearers: i. Bargaining ii. Education iii. Paralegal iv. Skills Development v. Occupational Health and Safety vi. Gender vii. viii. Nurses Academic Role of Coordinators The overall work of branch coordinators shall be through constituencies not committees. It means that a specific coordinator working with the relevant constituency shop steward he/she will place and collect issues through constituency meetings which must be conducted regularly. Upon collecting issues from constituencies, he/she must take such issues to the branch executive committee through submitting monthly reports to branch secretary for discussion and consideration at this level. Education and Training Given our political orientation as a progressive trade union, NEHAWU is dictated to ground its members, shop stewards and leaders from the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist tradition through deepening class consciousness and advancing internationalism in order to strengthen itself as a rooted workplace organisation. To realise this, the union should position workers and the working class as a class for itself through consciously fighting side by side with the Vanguard Party for the total liberation of our class in its entirety. In light of the current struggles, the union should position itself as a defender of the majority of workers in the public sector through strengthening organising servicing by putting education and training at the centre of its overall work. Indeed, the union s work should aim at building strong workplace organisation in the short and medium term while in the long term, working with SACP, it should build socialism in the belly of the capitalist state by heightening education and training as an integral part of deepening class consciousness. Learning lessons from the 2014 implementation and/or roll-out of branch based education including the adopted 11th national congress theme, the union decided to strengthen its capacity through a reviewed strategic approach which dictated drastic change in the training content, curricular and 24

25 methodology hence the adoption of Our Fantasy underpinned by eight (8) principles in our ideological and education and training approach as follows: i. Rooted the union in the workplace. ii. Ensuring that there is bottom-up democracy. iii. Ensuring there is election and accountability. iv. Building a rank and file organising strategy. v. Strengthening our resolve in being a militant and fighting union. vi. Being a union which fights sectarianism. vii. Encourage our members to be active in politics. viii. Ensuring that NEHAWU is active as part of the wider workers movement. In conforming to the 11th national congress theme, we decided to develop a guiding document spelling-out what value these principles bring in the union, what members should know about them and what should be the role of education and training in ensuring that these principles are realised. In this document, we elaborate adequately each principle to clarify the meaning as part of building a desired union for public sector workers distinct from other unions existing in the terrain. In this regard, the education and training through the roll-out of branch based education and political schools and classes will be guided by these principles supported by our Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Theory. To this point, first phase of planning on education and training has started which will be followed by consolidation of 2018 plan in order to intensify education at the workplace complemented by ideological training in each province as part of deepening class consciousness. Moving forward, the education and training will be sustained through establishing structures from at the workplace by ensuring branch education and training committees, regional education and training committees, provincial education and training committees and national education and training committee are functional and capacitated to deliver our education project in order to change membership from quantity to quality. This is how our union will defend its base and close its rank in the period under review. Collective Bargaining As much as all organisational priorities are so important but bargaining is the reason why essential trade unions exist in order to improve working conditions or conditions of service and creating conducive working environment within which workers should work under. The 9th congress of the national union which was characterised by anxiety and anger said the union ought to change the manner in which it does things hence the notion of doing things, differently, better and faster - not as business as usual. Essentially, this meant that the union must improve collective bargaining through a systematic, structural and coordinated mandate taking and feedback in a manner that ensures consistence with membership pre, actual and concluding collective bargaining processes. Concluding the discussions, the 9th congress instructed the national union to establish public service bargaining forums, sectoral bargaining forums and departmental bargaining forums as platforms to consult, consolidate and process all collective bargaining related issues from branch up to national level. Unfortunately, public service collective bargaining forums are inly convened unevenly as and when public service negotiations are in motion thereafter no meetings organised to follow through the implementation of collective agreements in totality. At least these forums are relatively functional with the challenges of inconsistence and unevenness among provinces. The union has not made process on the sectoral bargaining forums at all as a result a much more attention must be given developing mechanisms to ensure that these bargaining forums exists in all levels of the national union in This means that the coordination and composition of the form of forum are clarified including time lines for implementation. The departmental bargaining forums are poorly and conveniently convened as and when a pressure arise from different reasons but 25

26 not systematically established as a functional structure across departments despite the fact that the union had prioritised few departments given the nature of issues confronting members and the extent to which the union must respond to those issues. Indeed, the departmental bargaining forum at the national level are convened but hap hazard as these are not existing at regional and provincial levels and the appointment of provincial representatives at the national meeting are not properly process through outlined processes by the union instead the representation happens at the discretion of the provincial secretary not through mandatory process of the department. These are the challenges facing the union in this area of work which an urgent attention must be paid to, if we are to improve our ability and capacity on collective bargaining towards materially improved working conditions of our members and workers in general. Membership Registration and Recruitment Campaign The union s understanding is that numbers facilitate politics and power as size matters in the collective bargaining set-up and terrain we operate. With this understanding, the union has set aside a target of 50% plus 1 in each workplace up to the public sector as a whole in order ensure that it becomes a majority union. It did not only set target but further clarified a structure which must be established drive recruitment campaign in order to achieve the target at the level of the workplace. In doing so, the union argued that growth must not happen by accident or fluke rather through dedicated efforts driven systematically by all spheres of the national union hence the notion of war rooms. Indeed, as indicate in some parts of this document that progress from 9th up to 10th congress progress has been registered in most areas including this one but post special national congress things started to decline in terms of pace and practice hence the collapse of war room across structures of the national union from national up to regions. In this regard, the union will step and pull up its socks by revamping war room at all levels for a dedicated and offensive recruitment campaigning supported by service member programme as part of closing ranks and defending the base against the onslaught directed at us both from within and outside COSATU fold as our union is a target to all. In doing so, the union must revisit or set a new target for membership in public service if it wants to concur and become a majority union in the sector. Through this new target, a revised approach for recruitment campaign must be renewed and sustained by provincial and regional focused war rooms to be established in January 2018 which will deal with three areas, namely: planning for branch congresses, branch based education and recruitment campaign to commence mid-february Meetings with our social partners to discuss integration of their services into recruitment campaign will start with MHA on the 7th December 2017 while we are in the process of confirming dates with others for meetings with them before the end of the year and before the third week of January 2018 for a proper planning of re-launching or reviving war rooms as a permanent feature of the national union. Case Handling and Management Despite the directives of the 10th national congress, the union has yet to develop a national paralegal strategy however we are happy to indicate that post the 11th national congress at least a first draft national paralegal strategy though it is at the weakest at this stage has been developed which requires a thorough and robust interrogation towards a comprehensive consolidated national paralegal strategy. This first draft national paralegal strategy is underpinned by four pillars namely: case handling and management, legal research and advice, building and capacitating paralegal teams and monitoring and evaluation. Indeed, the first draft strategy is not ready yet for the attention of the central executive committee. In this regard, we suggest that the first draft paralegal strategy be deferred to the Organisational Review Commission for further engagements and cleaning while on the other hand we should process in the forthcoming 1st central executive committee of the 11th 26

27 national congress the adoption of the pillars and composition of the paralegal teams for all levels of the national union. The following is the composition of the paralegal teams for all levels as adopted by the executive committee: At the national level, the paralegal team should comprise of the President, General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary, Head: Legal, National Legal Officers, National Paralegal Coordinator, Provincial Paralegal Coordinators, Provincial Paralegal Officers, Head: OSEC and Head: EDUSEC. At the provincial level, the paralegal team should comprise of the Provincial Chairperson, Provincial Secretariat, Provincial Paralegal Coordinator, Provincial Paralegal Officer, PHOSEC, EDUSEC, Regional Coordinators, Provincial Administrator and co-opted labour relations practitioners who are loyal members of the union in the province. At the regional level, the paralegal team should comprise of the Regional Chairperson, Regional Secretariat, Regional Coordinator, Regional Organisers, Regional Administrator and all Branch Paralegal Coordinators. At the branch level, the paralegal team should comprise of the Branch Chairperson, Branch Secretariat, Branch Coordinator and 7 members appointed by the branch executive committee. These organisational renewal tasks recognise progress registered from the 9th and 10th national congresses while at the same time acknowledges reversal of the same progress after the special national congress including drastic decline thereof. It is for this reason that new concrete proposals are made in order to strengthening workplace organisation as a response to the first component of our 11th national congress theme as we are not building a new union but to strengthen the work done from 2014 branch congresses. Conclusions And Way Forward (a) The union must intensify the project of deepening class consciousness on internationalism in branches through branch based training and provincial political schools in 2018 focusing on internationalism located within the context of Marxist World Outlook. (b) The union reject the announcement by US President Donald Trump giving unwarranted and illegal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transferring his embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In our view, this decision is a clear violation of international law, which affirms Jerusalem as an occupied city. As the union, we will continue to recognise East Jerusalem as the capital city of Palestine, in this regard a picket to communicate this decision will be organised by February 2018 directed to US Embassy. (c) The central executive committee welcomes the analysis provided by the Secretariat report on the emergence of Russia as a decisive power in the Middle East and to some extent with a growing influence in the whole of the ex-soviet World, while China on the other hand gradually asserting a dominant position in Northeast and Southeast Asia. In this regard, the national union must develop a thorough analysis on these developments in order to action actions within the trade union movement. (d) The central executive committee directs the national office bearers to immediately meet with the leadership of the SACP to secure direct interaction with trade unions in both Russia and China as part of developing union perspective as directed by (c) above. The union therefore should convene a national international relations committee and where possible have a delegation visiting these two countries for practical experience of these developments before the first national executive committee of (e) The national office bearers must urgently meet the new Cuban Ambassador and 27

28 (f) the team on the 14th December 2017 to quickly discuss the acceleration of our work including concretising the implementation of our declaration of intent to assist recovery and reconstruction efforts. In the national international relations committee meeting to be convened as proposed on (c), the national union must give concrete meaning of the Nigeria platform and translate them into the national union s programs, including strengthening the offensive against reformism of ITUC, who promote class cooperation. On the other hand, the national office must help provinces and regions to familiarise themselves on the Nigeria Platform four-year program which details specific actions to underpin the strengthening of the class oriented trade union movement in Africa. (g) The WFTU ideological training program agreed upon by affiliates of WFTU in South Africa must be realised in the first quarter of (h) The central executive committee welcomes the WFTU Youth World Congress outcomes and immediately congratulates the election of our shop steward, Cde. Benjamin Mogoye into WFTU Youth Secretariat. In this regard, the national union will support his work and leadership as guided by the WFTU Youth programme and also use his experience and knowledge to sharpen discussion from within the union regarding young workers and their role in building strong workplace organisation in a sustainable manner. (i) (j) The central executive committee reiterate the national executive committee decision which directs the national office bearers to deduct from its subscription to COSATU, a portion of the fees remitted to ITUC in COSATU s subscription as the union shall not compensate ITUC for enslaving us. In the process the national union must develop a clear program of engaging affiliates of the federation individually to affiliate to the WFTU while the union shall refuse to allow a new resolution on the affiliation before implementing the existing resolution. The central executive committee reaffirms (k) (l) the decision of the national executive committee that the union must work with COSATU and the SACP in responding to fundamental questions of political economy of Africa in order to stimulate ideas on how socialist transition in Africa can be effected and also answer the question whether socialist transformation is possible beyond the radical socioeconomic and political demands. The national union reiterate its commitment to intensify its international solidarity support by pursuing rigorously campaigns with people of Swaziland, Western Sahara, Cuba, Palestine, Basque, Kurdish, Middle East, Venezuela and Brazil including strengthen ties with trade unions in the South. The national union is directed, as part of working with other organisations of uniting different democratic forces inside and outside Swaziland, to give a more practical emphasis around political campaigns on the key political demands of the struggle for a democratic Swaziland - at the centre of which is the demand for the unconditional release of Cde. Amos Mbedzi and all political prisoners, the unbanning of all political organizations, an end to the harassment of community and political activists, an end to the restriction imposed on the operations of trade unions and other civic organizations. (m) The national union should convene a national political commission early next year (2018) to analyse the outcomes of the 54th conference of the ANC and prepare for the first 2018 CEC of COSATU to take place in February 2018 including developing a framework towards the 13th national congress and a framework to guide discussions in the provincial political commissions which must be convened after the national political commission. (n) As part of the on-going work of the political commission, the central executive committee directs that a thorough and indepth analysis on the decline of liberation movement post liberation must considered within the context of the ANC Party to Party relations and also ascertain the cause for the decline in order to learn lessons for our 28

29 own liberation movement, the ANC and its alliance components. (o) The central executive committee reaffirms the appreciation by the national executive committee on the mobilisation and leadership demonstrated on the 27th September 2017 around Section 77 which elevated the issue of state capture and corruption. Once again, the union reaffirms its view that COSATU remains the home of South African workers and wish to thank all its members for coming in large numbers as part of showing that their hopes still remains with COSATU and its affiliates. (p) The central executive committee mandates the national office bearers to immediately respond to the political address of Free State ANC Provincial Chairperson, Ace Magashule presented in the recent provincial conference of the ANC, in particular condemning his sentiments and posture against COSATU affiliates, NEHAWU and SADTU to be precise. (q) The central executive committee notes the COSATU committee on CR17 campaign and supports the names proposed by the federation for the forthcoming 54th ANC National Conference of the ANC including the establishment of COSATU Command Centre. In this regard, provinces are directed to update their list of shop stewards who are delegates to the ANC Conference including providing contact numbers to the Secretariat by the 14th December (r) The central executive committee further notes the discussions of COSATU CEC on the state of the alliance including its approach to reconfiguration of the Alliance and State Power. In this regard, the union will lead discussions on the issues including the processes of Midterm Review Plan and Constitutional Review towards COSATU 13th National Congress to be held on the 17th 20th September (s) The central executive committee note the 2018 May Day preparations to take place in Eastern Cape Province in Port Elizabeth and direct the national union to do everything at its disposal to ensure the successful international worker s day event on the 1st May (t) The union must participate fully in finding lasting solutions for a suitable funding model towards financial viable federation that is capable of funding its programme of action and staff. In this regard, the union must engage other affiliates to improve attendance in FINCOM by ensuring that National Treasurers do attend regular FINCOM meetings of the federation. (u) The union must develop a clear position and take up a campaign to address the plight of our members at SASSA in the midst of the tug of war on the payments of social grants in the light of the registration of the Postbank as a retail bank and attempts by the Minister of Social Development to continue with outsourcing. (v) PDU must continue participating in the Higher Education Task Team established at NEDLAC following the COSATU Section 77 Notice to pursue alternative proposals supporting free higher education for students from the working class, rural poor and middle-strata and the broader transformation agenda. In this regard, the national office must convene an urgent meeting with SASCO newly elected leadership to discuss amongst others relations, right to learn campaign and recommendations of Heher Commission for a joint action. (w) The national office must take up the matter of the Foreign Services Bill seriously. Similarly, we must engage the new Minister of Home (x) Affairs, Ayanda Dlodlo on the BMA Bill. The contracting of private construction companies to build dams and water reticulation infrastructure, to the exclusion of the state-owned company at DWS threatens the jobs of our members and goes against the notion of building a capable developmental state. The national union must engage with members to develop a programme to challenge the DWS, including the call for an Integrated Water Plan. (y) All provinces are directed to support the NHI education programme that is run jointly between COSATU and the DOH. In this regard, the union must inform and provide logistical support for members to participate in this programme. 29

30 (z) Working with our branches in the nuclear sector, the union shall develop proposals, issue statements and consider other ways and means of campaigning for safe nuclear research reactor facility at Pelindaba. (aa) PDU and OSEC must investigate and develop information on the state of the state-owned pharmaceutical company, Ketlaphela, with a view to support its development and expansion, and to advocate for the procurement of medicines of the public health sector from it. (bb) We must ensure that the union actively participate in TVET forum and the outcomes of the Imbizo are followed up at the provincial levels as well. (cc) The central executive committee mandates the national union to pay a close attention to all universities in the first three months of (dd) The central executive committee reaffirms the position of the national union on the battle of ideas with emphasis to step up its campaign on the overarching South African vision for education: People s Education for People s Power. (ee) The central executive committee reminds the national union that the issue of Tax Amendment Act is to be re-tabled for discussion in 2018 and therefore instruct the union to prepare for such discussion through our national office bearers who must engage the leadership of the federation to comprehensively develop a concrete submission to inform and influence the tax amendment act in favour of workers. (ff) The central executive committee accepts the 11th congress assessment and endorses the decision of the national executive committee that the assessment remains as a basis to learn lessons for future congresses and the union must act decisively to correct any wrong doings. (gg) The central executive committee adopts the following names as members of the organisational review commission: General Secretary as a chairperson, Cde Zola Saphetha; Deputy General Secretary, Cde December Mavuso; Head of Secretariat, Cde Thulani Skosana, NC Provincial Chairperson, Cupido Jacques; EC Provincial Secretary, Cde Miki Jaceni; NW Provincial Chairperson, Cde Elizabeth Mogotsi; FS Provincial Secretary, Cde Desmond Mogotsi; GP Provincial Secretary, Cde Tshepo Mokheranyana; KZN Provincial Chairperson, Cde Siyanda Zungu; LP Provincial Chairperson, Cde Calvin Tshamano; NC Provincial Chairperson, Cde. Jacques Cupido; WC Provincial Secretary, Cde Eric Kweleta, MP Provincial Secretary, Cde Welcome Mnisi; Head: Policy Development Unit, Cde Sidney Kgara; Head: EDUSEC, Cde Zweli Thoba; Head: International, Cde Lucian Segami; Head: Legal, Head: Cde Stuart Marshall; Head: OSEC, Cde. Sabata Jonas, Parliamentary Officer, Cde. Tengo Tengela and National Education Officer, Cde. Mbulelo Mandlana. (hh) The central executive committee adopts the framework and processes proposed to guide the Strategic Policy Framework to be undertaken which amongst others include the establishment of the overall working group comprising internal and external comrades to be selected and led by the Secretariat of the national union including establishing focus groups. The framework also appreciates the need to involve the former national office bearers and officials who were employed and played a role in the development of our SPF and 10-yearplan. (ii) The central executive committee adopts the reviewed gender policy for the national union and immediately directs the Secretariat to clean up and circulate it to (jj) provinces and regions for implementation. All provinces of the national union are directed to improve performance on the implementation of union pillars namely: International, ideological and political and socio-economic as these are resolutions of congresses since the 9th national congress until the last one held in (kk) The central executive committee adopts all the key organisational renewal tasks on organisational priorities which covers strengthening workplace organisation that is political conscious, (which clarifies the types and nature of ideal branches 30

31 (ll) of the national union, branch congresses, branch executive committees and role of coordinators), principles underpinning the education and training of the national union, improved collective bargaining, revised membership registration and recruitment campaign approach, and better handling and management of cases in the national union. As part of the rollout of 2018 program, the union must also pay special attention in the strengthening of regions as engines of service delivery. In line with the above (f), the national secretariat must facilitate workshops for all provincial and regional secretariats on the key organisational renewal tasks in provinces in January and February 2018 focusing in particular to the integration of constitutional structures of the national union. (mm) The central executive committee directs all provinces to convene two day planning meetings to be attended by all provincial and regional office bearers and all staff in the province. The first day will focus mainly on the key organisational renewal tasks which will be facilitated by the Secretariat to all these provincial planning meetings. (nn) The Secretariat must lead the process of reviewing the reporting format of organisers and other officials as part of improving the way officials report and account to the union. (oo) The central executive committee appreciates the work undertaken by the leadership that ensured interaction between and amongst union structures particularly at provincial level which constitute an integral part of Going back to Basics project as a necessary feature of trade unionism and further mandates the national office bearers to continue assessing the performance of provinces based on the extent to which provinces have implemented the outcomes of joint office bearers meeting across the country. (pp) All provinces must convene branch congresses in line with the national guidelines for branch congresses from March and complete the process by the end of June In this regard, provinces are directed to provide progress report on the extent of implementing this task of branch congresses to Mid-Year Review to be convened mid-july The period between January and February 2018 therefore shall be used for training and planning towards concrete and comprehensive program for smooth running of branch congresses. (qq) The central executive committee reaffirmed the position that the Mid-Year Review must always be convened mid-july of each year as a necessary platform for evaluation and monitoring progress on the implementation of our national union s program. (rr) The central executive committee notes the collapse of ROB collectives in both Central West and Mafikeng and immediately directs the national office bearers working with the provincial office bearers of the two provinces to convene special regional congresses in February (ss) The central executive committee appreciates the decentralised 30th anniversary celebrations in provinces which has drastically improved the union s profile. In this regard, the central executive committee directs provinces to sustain the momentum of general happiness of our members and must also keep up the posture of the national union in action. (tt) The central executive committee applauds the national union for honouring and hosting an emotional award ceremony in recognition of Cde. Eric Stalin Mtshali for the sterling and revolutionary role he played in building international trade unionism. The national office bearers are therefore directed to continue acknowledging contributions made by individual and collectives in building trade unionism and class oriented trade unions both abroad and here at home in particular. (uu) The central executive committee endorses the decision of the national executive committee to confer a special recognition award to the long twenty five (25) years of service by the former General Secretary comrade Fikile Slovo Majola who also served sixteen (16) years as a General Secretary of this giant union which is scheduled for the 14th December

32 and also to be attended by all members of the central executive committee. (vv) The national union, linking this with our decision to support SASCO Right to Learn campaign, must be in universities and TVETs as part of closing ranks and finalising centralised bargaining in the sector in the first three months of This means that the committee established in 2016 must be revamped in order to drive this programme in defence of our space against any onslaughts directed to our national union. (ww) The central executive committee notes the report on the public service collective bargaining and condemns the attitude of the employer in response to our demands. It further notes with anger the lack of progress on the implementation of the agreement with Social Development and attempts by the employer to withdraw from the agreement. The central executive committee directs the national union to organise a national march for all sectors in February 2018 before the tabling of the budget speech by the Minister of Finance in order to put pressure to the employer for a positive response to our demands. (xx) The central executive committee appreciates the convening of the first parliament and legislatures national meeting and note the progress made thus far towards achieving centralised bargaining for the sector. This work must be fast tracked and progress be reported in the national executive committee of March (yy) The central executive committee appreciates the work in progress from membership task team. However, the slow membership growth coupled with the huge membership cancellations is of serious concern and the central executive committee directs the national union to drive a vigorous and offensive recruitment campaign from the beginning of 2018 which must be linked to the roll-out of branch congresses through revised and functioning war rooms. (zz) To achieve this task of putting the union on growth trajectory all provinces are directed to resuscitate their provincial war rooms in the month of January 2018 to develop recruitment campaign programmes with clear set of target towards 50% plus 1 which is target of the national union. In this regard, the following are priority regions for membership growth; Durban, Harry Gwala, Tshwane, Vuyani Mabaxa, Ikapa South, Mafikeng, Central West, Ehlanzeni, Mike Tauyatswala, Thabo Moshoeshoe and Francis Baard. (aaa) The central executive committee notes the intentions from KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape to change the name of Durban and Ikapa South regions. In this regard, these two provinces were directed to work with the Secretariat on the name change processes and full report be submitted in the next central executive committee for adoption. (bbb) The central executive committee accepts the finance report, financials and adopt the 2018 budget. (ccc) The central executive committee endorses the decision of the national executive committee to organise training workshops for provincial financial committees which must be attended by provincial secretariat, provincial and regional treasurers, and provincial finance administrators early next year including training members of the national finance committee on financial skills. (ddd) The national office must engage a service provider manufacturing furniture to secure a deal to distribute furniture to all offices of need and agree on the payment terms which will suit the financial capacity of the national union. (eee) All provinces must develop a dedicated programme of action focusing to universities and parastatals in order to correct the payment of subscription fee and a full progress report must be provided in the first national executive committee of (fff) In case of service providers providing service to provincial activities, the national office must directly pay such service providers for the service provided as part of assisting and fast tracking accounting in provinces. 32

33 2018 Programme Of Action Strengthen workplace organisation, deepen class consciousness and advance internationalism INTRODUCTION We emerged from our historic 11th national congress held on the 26th 29th June 2017 as a militant union of COSATU and the WFTU having reached a milestone achievement in which we celebrated 30 fighting years of our union. Going forward, we are indebted to countless martyrs and members that built this organisation whose selfless contribution we acknowledge. As a red union we proudly hoist the banner of Marxism-Leninism, acknowledging the guidance of Karl Marx to the unions that, instead of the conservative motto, A fair day s wages for a fair day s work! they ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword, Abolition of the wages system! We recognise with sincerity that members are the life-blood of the union and that the union cannot successfully operate without a massline which in the prevailing political context remains a compelling feature. Therefore, in this programme of action the Listen Campaign shall be a permanent feature at all levels of the union. We reaffirm the importance of the mandate that obliges the national office bearers to spend time in their term of office enforcing, monitoring, evaluating and supporting the constitutional structures of the union and to ensure that the organizational work is fully integrated. In this regard, we must ensure that all constitutional structures are convened as per the year planner of the national union adopted by the central executive committee without fail. The 11th congress once again directed the national union to revert to the practice of vertical and horizontal integration as part of improving the level of implementation of the program of action and further agreed that our priority going forward, will be to strengthen the horizontal integration in provinces and regions as a permanent feature of our work. The next round of collective bargaining that is currently unfolding in the public service will put our mass-line approach to a severe test. It is clear that government provokingly expect our members to make sacrifices and to shoulder the burden of the economic crisis that has been compounded by the looting and mismanagement of state funds. The union s response to this offensive will be underpinned by an in-depth review of our strategic policy framework which presents an opportunity for self-introspection and for the realignment of the union s internal mechanisms to fulfil our historic mandate. The internal and external factors at play constitute the totality of the material conditions within which we discharge our revolutionary duties. The strategic and tactical choices we make should make possible new gains and qualitative advances in the struggle to defend the rights of our members leading to improvements in their working conditions. Our programme of action shall be guided by the overarching theme: Strengthen Workplace Organisation, Deepen Class Consciousness and Advance Internationalism. This is the theme within which the resolutions of the 11th national congress must find expression as we continue to build a strong union and improving our service to members at the workplace. This programme shall be subject to ongoing elaboration by our central executive committee and implemented in phases. It shall be based on the framework with the following pillars: (i) International Working Class Solidarity (ii) Ideological and Political work (iii) Socio-economic priorities (iv) Organisational priorities (v) Building Financial Self-sufficiency and sustainability YEAR ONE-2018: THE YEAR OF ORGANISATIONAL RENEWAL, DEEPENING CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS AND BRANCH CONGRESSES This programme is divided into yearly phases, 33

34 starting from the year 2018 towards the 12th National Congress in For the coming year, the organisation outlines the point of focus. From the outset, it must be indicated that we shall seek to implement all the union priorities simultaneously, coherently, systematically and seamlessly. Organisational Priorities (a) The 11th National Congress directed that in the coming four (4) years, strengthening workplace organisation must be central to everything the union does. This translates to strengthening branches to constitute majority in all sectors, bargaining councils and chambers. To achieve this, all effort and energies of our collectives must focus on implementation of organisational decisions in all spheres of the union structures. (b) It is quite evident that this year will be characterised by a lot of activities on both the political and organisational fronts. Importantly, our emphasis in 2018 and beyond will be on strengthening workplace organisation on the ground and to grow the union faster. It is at the branch and the workplace where our programme of action must give concrete expression to our national congress theme. (c) All our structures shall be geared towards this important task and the mid-year review meeting shall be convened to evaluate progress on implementation. Strengthen Workplace Organisation (a) Special Regional Congresses We will convene the special congresses of Central West and Mafikeng regions in February 2018 before branch congresses in order to allow the two regions to preside over the process of branch congresses. (b) Branch Congresses (i) The task of strengthening workplace organisation shall start with the convening of successful branch congresses in the first six months in 2018 in line with the Organisational Renewal perspective adopted by the central executive committee. This perspective among other things pay special focus on correcting previous anomalies by reconfiguring the process of electing Shop stewards, Branch Executive Committees and Coordinators. In this regard we shall convene planning meetings to develop a national program in January (ii) During branch congresses we shall undertake rigorous education and training of Shop stewards through sector specific training. (c) Education and training (i) (ii) Education and training remains central in attainment of strong workplace organisation. Given our political orientation as a progressive trade union, we are obliged to ideologically ground our members, shop stewards and leaders in the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist traditions, through deepening class consciousness, advancing internationalism in order to strengthen workplace organisation. To realise this vision the union shall continue to position workers and the working class as a class for itself through consciously fighting side by side with the Vanguard Party towards the final goal to end capitalist exploitation. The first phase of planning on education and training has started and will be followed by consolidation of the 2018 plan to intensify education at the workplace, complemented by ideological training in each province. Recruitment Campaign (a) We will resuscitate and build the capacity of war rooms at National, Regional and Provincial levels with an objective of 34

35 carrying out a systematic and focused organisational renewal program and recruitment campaign, supported by members servicing programme as part of closing ranks and defending the base against the onslaught directed at us both from within and outside COSATU. In doing so, the union must revisit and set new targets for membership recruitment in order to become a majority union in all sectors. (b) Through this new target, a revised approach for recruitment campaign must be renewed and sustained by provincial and regional focused war rooms to be established in January 2018 which will deal with three areas, namely: planning for branch congresses, branch based education and recruitment campaign to commence mid-february Case handling and management (a) We shall finalise the Paralegal strategy. This draft national paralegal strategy is underpinned by four pillars namely; case handling and management, legal research and advice, building and capacitating paralegal teams and monitoring and evaluation. (b) We shall use the strategy to develop mechanisms that will drastically change how cases are reported across the union to improve monitoring and accountability. Strengthening Collective Bargaining Machinery (a) All the collective bargaining machinery across sectors will be strengthened and in some instances resuscitated to carry out the work on collective bargaining and campaigns. In line with the objective Organisational perspective resolutions, the Organising and Collective Bargaining Service Centre is mandated to align all the Organisational Rights Agreements on collective bargaining so that all negotiations can start in the same season. (b) We shall convene national, provincial and regional public service bargaining forums in January 2018 to assess progress made in the current round of wage negotiations. The establishment of sectoral, departmental and company bargaining forums must be completed. We shall review our negotiating teams and this will be coupled with training of forums on their roles and responsibilities. (c) We shall in focused and systematic manner concentrate and campaign for Centralised Collective Bargaining for Higher Education and Training and the Legislatures and Parliament Establishment of Gender Structures (a) As part of mainstreaming gender work, the union will finalise the establishment of coordinating structures which must be responsible for gender activities. National Skills development conference (a) The national union will convene a national skills development conference in order to focus on the internal skills interventions and also to develop its own perspective on the skills development landscape of our country. International Working Class Solidarity Deepen our coordination nationally and provide ongoing support for international work (a) We shall convene a session of the International Relations Committee in early 2018 to determine our international priorities; to strengthen capacity in our provinces; to renew our perspectives on the BRICS trade union platform and its 2018 summit; (b) As part of this undertaking we shall pay attention to the strengthening of workplace 35

36 organisation which should constitute one of the central priorities of our international work, focussing on international labour standards for collective bargaining and negotiations; strengthening workplace twinning and beneficial cooperation with sister unions. Strengthening workplace organisation through international exchanges (a) It is critical in 2018 to benchmark around recruitment, membership, organisational renewal and ideological work in the trade union movement, in order to support the overarching function to strengthen workplace organisation. (b) We shall ensure the WFTU ideological training of the union takes place and support its political schools working with sister unions and the WFTU. (c) The IRC should also adopt a framework for strategic interventions on Cosatu international program in the run up to its 13th national congress and the SACP Special national congress in (d) Through our IRC and constitutional meetings we should reprioritise our working relations with sister unions, strengthen existing ones based on a common vision and campaigns and to improve the sharing of international experience. International working class solidarity and the WFTU (a) It is critical to deepen our international working class solidarity work on Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela, Swaziland, and Basque Country by strengthening relations with trade unions in these countries. Whilst consolidating around these areas, Palestine becomes specifically more important in the light of recent US President decision to alter the status of the holy city of Jerusalem in Palestine. (b) We shall intensify our WFTU work within the Public and Allied Services Trade Union International (TUI), in Cosatu and beyond in implementing the priorities of the Nigeria Platform in the African continent, working systematically with the WFTU internationally. The Great October Revolution and its achievements (a) We have to deepen work done in marking the anniversary of the Great October Russian Revolution of 1917, specifically its achievements, the economics of socialist construction and the factors underpinning its reversal. POLITICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL WORK Provincial Political Schools The national union shall convene political schools at provincial level to train elected branch officials and shop-stewards per region. These political schools shall be organised and facilitated in conjunction with the SACP and the WFTU. The political schools shall cover training on the roles and duties of officials and shopstewards, as well as Marxism-Leninism and NDR. Political Commissions We shall convene a national political commission in early 2018 to among other things: analyse the outcomes of the 54th conference of the ANC; to prepare for the first CEC of COSATU in February 2018; to prepare for the SACP Special National Congress; to develop a framework towards the 13th national congress of COSATU and to develop a framework to guide discussions in the provincial political commissions. Socio-Economic Priorities (a) In the first instance in 2018 we shall ensure that the education and health 36

37 subcommittees are revived, strengthened and capable of helping the union take up socio-economic campaigns. (b) In light of the challenges in Higher education and in the context of our decision we will work towards reviving the Education Alliance as part of the primary front for the transformation, from basic to post-schooling education. Furthermore, we shall intensify our campaign for proper funding allocations to the TVET and CETs as a critical sector to contribute in the skills revolution for industrialisation. (c) We will strengthen our work in post schooling education and work towards the development of a discussion document on people education for peoples power. The union shall drive a worker led campaign on the transformation of post-schooling education and training and to fight against corporatisation. (d) We shall continue to enforce the full implementation of the NHI, including conducting internal popular education on the NHI as a way of equipping and empowering our members. (iii) We shall step up the utilisation of the website, Facebook, twitter account and various social media platforms to communicate our decisions, messages, campaigns, achievements and to some extent our challenges. Conclusion All our constitutional structures, the national executive committee, provincial executive committees and regional executive committee should champion the implementation of our program of action. We commit ourselves to diligently realise all actions contained in this programme and to ensure that the next CEC s evaluates progress made. Declaration Of The 2017 Cec The first Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the 11th National Congress met as an organ of the national union that represents a strong membership across the public service, Strengthening The Profile Of The Union The public profile shall be stepped up by ensuring that the union takes up the contemporary socio-economic and political issues in the public discourse as our areas of focus. In this regard: (i) We shall improve the public profile of the union and its leadership in the public policy discourse and campaigns, especially on health and education policy issues. DELEGATES LISTENING TO THE CEC DECLARATION (ii) We shall strengthen our own internal media platforms to support the overall struggle for socialism and to build a strong workplace organisation that consistently challenges the Neoliberal agenda in all its manifestations, through research, articles and other media outlets. post-school education, parastatals, public and private social development, private and public health sectors. It brought to a close a momentous year of our 30th anniversary of the founding of our organisation, that was celebrated across all provinces through a programme that sought to take all levels of the 37

38 union s leadership to workplaces, to listen to members concerns and views, to establish links with the former leaders of the union and to learn about the union s history in celebrating three decades of the founding and development of NEHAWU. This was an important experience that gave us a unique angle from which to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the union and to interact with our subnational structures and membership generally. Thus, we have taken stock of our current state of organisation, we are fully GENERAL SECRETARY, COMRADE ZOLA SAPHETHA conscious of our weaknesses and strengths. We now stand tall as a red giant public sector union, and as the biggest affiliate of COSATU and a leading affiliate of the class-oriented WFTU on our continent. We conclude the CEC on the brink of a potentially decisive landmark 54th National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC). Many of our current members and leaders, former members and former leaders alike shall actively participate in this conference and we know that in common course with the majority of the delegates, their contributions shall be in the best interests of the ANC, the NDR and South Africa guided and being true to the theme of the 54th conference: Remember Tambo: Towards unity, renewal and radical Socioeconomic transformation! Against the background of this highly polarised ANC conference, naturally the CEC reflected on the NDR from both theoretical and practical standpoints in the face of the challenge of forging a more radical second phase of our transition. The CEC welcomed the initiative of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in calling for the reconfiguration of the Alliance, and in this context its decisions to build strategic capacity to participate in multi-party elections in its own right and to play a leading role in developing a common platform for a Left Popular Front of working class and progressive forces. As NEHAWU we remain committed to our resolution to support the ANC in the next general elections and we shall engage in internal discussions reflecting on the implications of the outcomes 54th conference of the ANC and the Special National Congress of the SACP ahead of the 13th National Congress of COSATU primarily through our national and provincial political commissions. Part of these discussions in our commissions shall interface with the SACP s roadmap. Nonetheless, we reaffirm the sentiments of our 11th national congress that ultimately the struggle for socialism requires the revolutionary seizure of power by the proletariat led by the vanguard party, the SACP, which is for us the real content of the question of the strategic relationship of the proletariat, the party and state power rather than seeing the narrow parliamentary road as a strategic way to socialism, an important terrain as it is. The CEC observed with appreciation that since the 12th Congress our federation COSATU has been steadily regaining its strengths and impact in society, though more still needs to be done. Recently this has been attested by the successful 6th Central Committee and COSATU s capacity to mobilise hugely successful mass actions on the 27th September 2017 across the country, jointly with the SACP. At the same time, however, the CEC noted with concern the continued delay in the implementation of the resolution to affiliate to WFTU. In this regard, the CEC condemns the escalating divisive influence exerted by the labour-aristocracy of ITUC and its GUFs since this resolution was passed by the 11th and 12th congresses of COSATU. Despite its recovery from the destabilising internal battles, COSATU is now facing challenges in terms of its international outlook. It has effectively withdrawn from antiimperialist solidarity campaigns that give expression to the resolutions of its previous congress. As NEHAWU, a proud affiliate of WFTU we shall continue with our fight against the American blockade of the Cuban revolution, support the national liberation struggles of the Palestinian and Western Saharan peoples. We shall mobilise and agitate for a shutdown of 38

39 the South African embassy in Tel Aviv ahead of the ANC s hosting of a Global Solidarity Conference on Palestine next year. We shall work with COSATU in thoroughly preparing our contribution at the BRICS Trade Union Forum, which shall be held during the BRICS 10th Summit. We shall also take steps to forge direct relations with the WFTU affiliated trade union centre in Basque, LAB, a region which together with Catalonia is engaged in a protracted struggle for self-determination in the face of intensified suppression by the neo-fascist monarchic state of Spain. As NEHAWU we shall take an initiative, working with other organisations, of uniting different democratic forces inside and outside Swaziland. This initiative shall be given a more practical emphasis around political campaigns on the key political demands of the struggle for a democratic Swaziland - at the centre of which is the demand for the unconditional release of Cde Amos Mbedzi and all political prisoners, GENERAL SECRETARY, PRESENTING THE CEC DECLARATION the unbanning of all political organizations, an end to the harassment of community and political activists, an end to the restriction imposed on the operations of trade unions and other civic organizations. The end of the 37- year rule of Robert Mogabe, which was nearly turned that government into a dynasty has now positioned that country to chart a new wayforward, despite the sanctions still imposed by western imperialist countries on the country and ZANU PF leaders. It is therefore necessary for NEHAWU to reach out to the public service workers in Zimbabwe, especially the health workers who have regularly embarked on strikes, to understand the developing situation as part of our joint work with the SACP in that regard. Whilst we note the IMF s forecasts on the rising global economic growth in 2017 and 2018, notably its manifestations in the United States, European Union, China and other regions and countries, the CEC concluded that this is still superficial as it is accompanied by ever deepening socioeconomic inequalities, rising poverty and environmental degradation all across the world. Global capitalism is still unable to extricate itself from the current crisis that started in 2008 as we now live in a world in which the rich 10% owns 90% of global wealth, and 200 million people are without jobs this year. This underscores systemic crises features of global capitalism that is dominated by finance monopoly capital, that also engulfs South Africa whose growth rate forecast has been lowered from 1% to 0.7% this year by the IMF. We note the fact that the South African economy has averted a full-blown recession, though it remains trapped in a low growth trajectory, whilst facing an increasing debtburden and revenue shortfalls. This together with the junk status, raise the stakes even high for us to gear ourselves to win the demands of our members in the current round of public service collective bargaining early in January which come to an end by the end of February We shall embark on rolling mass action in all our sectors to put pressure on government ahead of the national budget day, to press forward our demands. In this regard, in the event of an unavoidable dispute, the CEC commits the union to put out all the stops in reaching out to our members, to ensure proper consultation and mobilising our organisational power at the workplace to shut down the operation of the public service in backing up our demands until they are met. The CEC approved the composition of its organ for organizational development, the Organisational Review Commission, adopted the National Gender Policy with its implementation framework and agreed to the process of developing the Strategic Policy Framework (SPF). Similarly, CEC adopted the discussion document on Nuclear Energy for further discussion in the union across our provinces as part of a process of developing the union s position ahead of the 13th National Congress of COSATU, which shall be linked with the process of developing perspective on Climate Change. CEC adopted the branch congresses guidelines to be used in the implementation of our programme on branch congresses. 39