Nehawu march on Bhisho
THOUSANDS of Nehawu members yesterday marched to the Eastern Cape premier’s office to demand that vacancies across government departments be filled.
The union also demanded a stop to the outsourcing of government work and backed a national call to scrap e-tolls.
Nehawu provincial secretary Miki Jaceni said although the union was taking part in a national march, there were unique issues in the Eastern Cape which had lingered for years.
“The excessive use of consultants in government departments has effectively compromised the workfo Jaceni said.
The crowd, under the leadership of Jaceni and Nehawu national treasurer Kgomotso Makhupola, marched from Bhisho sports field.
Cosatu provincial secretary Xolani Malamleli said the federation was in full support of the march as it touched on the province’s key economic issues.
Nehawu national spokesman Khaya Xaba said union’s concerns rose last year when national Treasury permanently closed all existing public service vacancies “and effectively imposed wage cuts at the managerial level of the public service where the level of wage increases were below inflation”.
He said although the union supported the call by the Independent Commission for the Remuneration for Public Office for zero wage increases for senior public officials, “we suspect these wage cuts will be extended to the rest of the public service workers, given the emphasis on reducing the public service wage bill in the mini-budget statement of 2016”.
Xaba said Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s office announced that over the next three years a spending ceiling would be imposed, in which there would be reductions of R10billion in 2017-18 and R15-billion in 2018-19 applied to the compensation budgets of national and provincial departments.
“The Treasury further stated the departments will have to align human resources plans within lower limits, moderately reducing head counts over the medium term.
“The closure of vacancies creates more work for fewer workers while, at the same time, the rate of pay is not increasing.
“As Nehawu we say no to these austerity measures that are only targeted at the low-paid workers,” Xaba said. —