COSATU Today, Tuesday 24 November 2009

A protest march was held on the 4^th of November, calling for the suspension of the Municipal Manager. Demands from the protest march were submitted to council but council has not responded since.

SAMWU members from the Musina Local Municipality have discovered grave corruption and malpractice; these findings have emerged in cheques, bank statements and financial reports of the Municipality.

Workers from the Musina Municipality say “We are sick and tired of the lack of service delivery; the roads in Musina are full of potholes and the Municipalities equipment, such as tractors and vehicles has to be pushed every morning in order to start them because there are no finances to repair them. The Municipalities account to buy safety equipment and clothing has been closed because of non payment.”

1.3 SADTU sets record straight on Mpheko High School

F. Loliwe, Eastern Cape SADTU’s Provincial Secretary, 24 November 2009

SADTU is disturbed by the repeats of Cutting Edge, an SABC 1 programme, on the state of teaching and learning at Mpheko Senior Secondary School in the Eastern Cape.

In all the programme repeats – the latest being on Thursday, 19 November, SADTU’s perspective was never sought.

SADTU in the Eastern Cape would like to clarify to the public our understanding of what is happening in Mpheko S.S.S.

Challenges in that school date back to 2003.

Our site committee in 2003 had to intervene when educators alleged that the principal had favorites among staff, which led to their unequal treatment. Our site committee succeeded in resolving the matter internally and all parties committed themselves to working together.

In 2004 educators complained about poor governance and management of the school. These were based on unprocedural composition of the SGB as well as unilateral decisions by the principal on staff transfers. A Task Team made up of representatives from SADTU, ANC and ECDOE was set up and it made the following recommendation:-

It noted that challenges in the school were on governance and management and recommended that the school develop policies using an inclusive process. No single policy has either been drafted or adopted by the school.

In 2005 the conflict was on allocation of subjects which was imposed on educators. This led to some educators being overloaded.

In 2006 personal differences between the principal and the chairperson of the SGB emerged when the principal was cautioned against financial irregularities.

When the school went for team building in 2007 the principal did not attend. In 2008 the SGB was overthrown.

Another Task Team was set up in 2008 with SADTU, NAPTOSA and ECDOE participating. Once more this Task Team recommended that the School Management Team (SMT) should be given support in improving their management skills and reinstatement of the overthrown SGB.

In the light of the above, SADTU wishes to indicate that:

We are in no way saying learners must not be taught; educators must do their work. We would like to state categorically our support for the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign.
An environment conducive for teaching and learning should be created by all concerned in that school.
Tendencies should not be used when certain individuals want to deal with SADTU. In a staff of 24, why is it that only 5 are singled out, what is the role of the other 19 staff members?
We are aware that the principal took a family responsibility leave of 3 months. If the leader flouts departmental policies, how will she be able to instill order in the school?

We want to conclude by saying we need to stop the blame game and start assisting Mpheko SSS. As SADTU we have done our best in trying to overcome the challenges facing this school. We are more than willing to assist in any other attempt to help the school.

2. South Africa

2.1 Joint statement by Ehlanzeni’s COSATU, SACP and SANCO

The SACP, COSATU and SANCO in Phillip Radebe (Ehlanzeni) District convened a joint meeting on Saturday, 14 November 2009 at Saccawu Regional office. The meeting coincided with the national Alliance Summit convened at Essellen Park, Gauteng on the same weekend.

We are inspired by the statement of the Alliance Summit which said:

” “All Alliance partners views the unity of the Alliance to be paramount and sacrosanct. It is the responsibility of the ANC as the leader of the Alliance to ensure that the Alliance remains united. But equally it is also the responsibility of the leaders of the other Alliance components to keep the ANC strong so that through the Alliance programme of action, the Alliance is able to lead the country and positively contribute towards a better continent and a better world.

In that context we were under no illusion about the fact that ordinarily the Alliance meeting would have been convened by the ANC as leader of the Revolutionary Alliance, however as this has not happened over time, as partners to this revolutionary marriage, we took it upon ourself to convene ourself even when the ANC is not present. To that end our major area of focus was an assessment of the state of the Alliance in the region

We noted with grave concern the current spate of community protests that has engulfed the province in the past few months. We viewed this as a serious indictment on the part of the movement as it demonstrated the absence of leadership on the ground resulting in the masses becoming frustrated and thus vent their anger in any manner possible notwithstanding the opportunistic elements that seek to confuse our people for selfish gains.

To that end we unequivocally condemn the violence and the destruction of property that was associated with these community demonstrations. We are fully conscious and understand the pain that our people endure resulting from poor service delivery by some of our municipalities. We have observed that largely the people’s grievances are related to the indifferent attitude and utter disrespect that some municipality officials and public representatives treat them.

We appreciate the intervention by the ANC NWC and we do hope that it will bring an end to abuse of state apparatus and the politics of patronage and cronyism that characterize most of our municipalities where state resources are used to advance narrow factionalist interests. Nevertheless we appeal that the final report be made available to structures of the movement.

We are however appalled at the manner in which the recent Regional General Council (RGC) of the ANC in Ehlanzeni was conducted. To us this was a missed opportunity for the NWC deployees to gather views as widely as possible about how the movement prosecute the National Democratic Revolution. Accordingly we want to voice our displeasure at being disallowed speaking rights at this RGC particularly as this is unprecedented and inconsistent with how the RGCs’ in the other regions were conducted. We can only hope that this is not associated with the new anti communist/working class tendency prevailing within the movement.

After through-going deliberations, we resolved on the following as a guide to our political work:

· Development of a programme on structured Alliance meetings

· Development of an Alliance programme of action

· Enhancement of Political education

· Building our structures and strengthen the ANC and the broader Alliance

· Support the state led transformation of the health sector

· Embark on and lead community campaigns to enhance our visibility on the ground

· Call for our members to actively take part in the ANC and government programmes

· Call for the ANC to convene a regional Alliance Summit preceded by the Alliance ten- a side

· Commitment to defend the gains of Polokwane by defending the unity of the ANC and the Alliance.

· Expose factionalist tendencies in what ever way it manifest itself

Guided by the statement of the Alliance Summit alluded to earlier, we therefore take it upon ourself to invite the ANC to a Regional Alliance ten - a – side meeting scheduled for Saturday, 28 November 2009.

Mluleki Mntungwa (Communications Officer)

COSATU ICT Unit

1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Street

Braamfontein

2007

P.O.Box 1019

Johannesburg

2000

South Africa

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24

Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940

E-Mail: mlu...@cosatu.org.za

image001.png

image008.jpg

image009.jpg

image002.jpg

image004.png

image006.png

image011.jpg

image016.jpg

image003.jpg

image005.png

image007.png

Reply all

Reply to author

Forward

0 new messages

COSATU Today, Tuesday 24 November 2009

Patrick Craven

Contents

1. Workers

1.1 Chris Dlamini’s memorial service and funeral

1.2 SAMWU workers stage a sit in at Musina Municipality

Tahir Sema, SAMWU’s National Media and Publicity Officer, 24 November 2009

1.3 SADTU sets record straight on Mpheko High School

F. Loliwe, Eastern Cape SADTU’s Provincial Secretary, 24 November 2009

2. South Africa

2.1 Joint statement by Ehlanzeni’s COSATU, SACP and SANCO