The battle for the control of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) at its national congress in Pretoria has been firmly won by its left wing.
At the congress in Pretoria this week, incumbent president Vusi Nhlapo lost the vote to former vice-president Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, 136 votes to 243.
Under Nhlapo’s leadership Nehawu had been seen to be canoodling with the African National Congress, despite ruling party polices that were regarded as impacting negatively on members’ interests.
A recent example was widespread trade union criticism of Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi for stating that South Africa would recruit workers from other countries while retrenching South Africans.
Nehawu issued a statement ”clarifying” the government position.
Nhlapo’s leadership style had also been called into question, with accusations that he was behaving like an executive president, instead of employing collective, union-style leadership.
Prior to the congress a pamphlet was distributed denigrating Mayende-Sibiya as well as secretary general Fikile Majola. The pamphlet accused them of being ultra-left and warned delegates to be wary of ”neo-socialists and the worst kind of revisionists who have confused honest and committed socialists with their sloganeering”.
Mayende-Sibiya, a nurse from KwaZulu-Natal, was one of the first professionals to join Nehawu at a time when it was regarded as a labourers’ union.
Nhlapo was on the ANC National Assembly list during the elections and might be headed for Parliament as he was not appointed to any other leadership position. He is currently high on the waiting list from which the ANC replaces any MPs who move on from their positions.
The congress was addressed by senior leaders of the tripartite alliance including President Thabo Mbeki, secretary general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions Zwelinzima Vavi and South African Communist Party secretary general Blade Nzimande, who all sought to guide the union.
In their speeches, Nzimande and Vavi urged workers to reclaim leadership of the union. Without mentioning names, Vavi said the union had been undermined in the past few years by individuals who placed personal battles before the interests of the union. Nhlapo’s defeat strengthens Vavi’s hand as Nehawu is one of the most powerful unions in the federation.
Nzimande called on members to work with the SACP to build membership capacity in the struggle for socialism. He also said that asserting the independence of the working class wasn’t necessarily in opposition to the ANC.
In the political report to congress, the Nehawu leadership bemoaned the loss of about 50 000 members over the past four years, which had affected union finances.
The report was also very critical of the leadership, saying some of them were prioritising the meeting of ”private sector boards and institutes” over union interests. It warned that union leaders were doing this for financial gain and called for this situation to be dealt with.
Nhlapo came under fire for receiving a R10 000 honorarium from the union while also earning a salary from his employers, Wits University.
Congress decided to scrap the honorarium, saying no one should be compensated for sacrifices undertaken during working class struggles. It also agreed to amend the union’s constitution to remove a clause that allowed the president to supervise the work of the general secretary.
The 2002 suspension of the secretary general and treasurer on charges of mismanagement and unauthorised expenditure was blamed in part for the union’s dysfunctional state. Both were acquitted of all but one minor charge each and were
reinstated.
Nehawu took a resolution to accelerate the merger with the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), a process that was supposed to have begun some time ago. Nehawu spokesperson Moloantoa Molaba said the merger was necessitated by government’s handling of its three tiers of governance, which resulted in a lack of clarity over who was covered by the two unions.
Molaba said the ideological differences between the two unions, marked by Samwu’s more critical stance against the government, would not be allowed to overshadow the importance of the merger. He said the first meeting of the unions is expected to happen in the next three months but a final merger would happen only in a year’s time.