Nehawu in talks with ANC Top Six on list of demands

The leadership of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) is currently in a virtual meeting with the African National Congress (ANC) Top Six leaders regarding their demands on government.

Nehawu leadership started protesting at the Union Buildings on Monday morning demanding to get feedback from the President after not getting a response on their memorandum they handed over at the beginning of September.

Nehawu Spokesperson, Kaya Xaba, says they hope the ANC will intervene. Xaba says Nehawu wants adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for all public health care workers, all vacancies filled and the implementation of the negotiated salary increases.

“The meeting is currently happening now and we should update after the meeting has taken place. One of our major gripes with the ANC is that we feel devotees of the ANC are failing us in government because these are ANC devotees who are supposed to implementing all these things. So we want to send a strong message to the ANC, if things don’t improve it will be very difficult for us to support the ANC in the next election,” says Xaba.

Earlier this month, Nehawu stated that government’s failure to meet their demands for salary increases for public servants and improved working conditions might affect the union’s relationship with the ANC.

“The reasons why we supported the ANC, we thought that as the liberation movement it will produce a government that listens to its people, especially workers who produce the economy of this country. So, we will go to the ANC and say one of your downfalls is to ignore and disregard the workers of this country and it won’t be easy to convince our members again for their support,” said Nehawu General-Secretary Zola Saphetha.

Nehawu warns it could withdraw support for the ANC

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#NEHAWU warns that if government pushes ahead with reneging on the 3 year wage agreement in the public service then “it would not be easy to convince our members” to support the ANC in the 2021 local government elections. #sabcnews

— Bulelani Phillip (@BulelaniPhillip) September 14, 2020