Nehawu slams Dlamini:
Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini should concentrate on her job instead of spending most of her time dealing with ANC factional battles, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said on Wednesday.
Dlamini is also the president of the ANC Women’s League, a strong supporter of President Jacob Zuma. The league has publicly endorsed Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed her former husband as president of the ANC.
Two weeks ago, Dlamini came under fire from opposition parties in the National Assembly for skipping portfolio committee hearings to attend DlaminiZuma’s farewell function in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
This, despite her department failing to institute a dependable social grant payment system by the April 1 deadline given by the Constitutional Court.
“Potentially, the disastrous situation related to Sassa [South African Social Security Agency], an institution in which we also organise and represent members, underscores the systemic crisis of the dysfunctionality of the department,” Nehawu general secretary Bereng Soke said, referring to the issue of grant payments meant to be undertaken by Sassa.
“The minister continues to place vulnerable grant recipients recklessly at risk as poor communities squarely depend on the professional services of our members, as she is more concerned about destructive factional battles in the ANC,” Soke said.
Nehawu is planning a march to the departments of social development and public service and administration in Pretoria on Friday over employment conditions for public social development sector workers. Four smaller marches are planned for King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape, Durban, Kimberley and Cape Town.
Soke said negotiations with the Department of Social Development broke down in 2015 and Dlamini had been refusing to meet the union.
The Nehawu general secretary said the union would strike if all its demands were not met five days after the march.
Soke also criticised Zuma, calling on him to step down.
“Yes, he’s still the president of the country and, indeed, he’s going to deliver the state of the nation address … but, of course, our call [for Zuma to step down] and our campaign will remain and we continue to raise our voices,” Soke said. “We think that he must, indeed, hand over the reins to somebody else.”
Nehawu, Cosatu’s biggest affiliate, was the first to come out and throw its support behind Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to succeed Zuma as ANC president. It has also not shied away from continuously calling on Zuma to step down.
Dlamini’s spokeswoman Lumka Oliphant questioned the motive that was behind Nehawu’s statement.
“It is important to know who we are replying to.
“Are we replying to Nehawu, the trade union fighting for the working conditions of social workers, or Nehawu that is part of [a Cosatu that] has pronounced itself on the very issues that [the] minister is being accused of — the ANC succession battle,” Oliphant asked.