Members of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) will on Monday lead a protest at the Union Buildings in Pretoria as well as outside the offices of the Premiers across all nine provinces.
They are demanding a response to a workers’ memorandum handed over on 3 September to Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla.
The union is protesting against public servants not receiving increases and lapses in the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, Nehawu stated 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 African National Congress (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 Zola Saphetha, General-Secretary.
Nehawu warns it could withdraw support for the ANC:
The union has been complaining about a lack of PPEs for health workers since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic at the beginning of the year.
Nehawu has previously said that the poor infrastructure at public healthcare facilities should be improved.
The union has also stated that PPE procurement must be centralised because there is a lot of corruption due to decentralisation.
Joint Nehawu briefing on programme of action to protect workers from COVID-19:
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