Address By : Mr. Ezra Joel Mfingwana ( NUPSAW President )
Venue: University Of The Western Cape
Date: 10 - 11 December 2005
Nupsaw held its last National Congress in Durban 29-30 March 2003. The president state of the organization address covers the period 31 March 2003 - 10 December 2005.
The president reflected on issues reported in the last congress and gave feedback on mandates of the last congress.
Nupsaw was faced with a revolt from its erstwhile staff, mostly head office based and one David Sefanyatso from North West . The union settled with all the staff except Steve Dawson, who took the union to various forums and unfortunately for us he won in every one of them. The last forum he took us to was the Labour Court . The Judge ruled that we had to pay damages for terminating his contract. We paid a sum of R452 000 of which R180 000 was paid to the taxman, Steve is disputing the payment to SARS indicating that this is damages and thus not taxable. The Labour Court is to determine this matter on the 26 January 2006.
There are two former employees who had cars that the union stood surety for. They did not pay the installments for these cars and the bank (Mercantile did not want to release some of our investments), their cars were sold on an auction, the money realized was used to pay the outstanding car debt. Mike Thlapane house was attached to defray the outstanding debt, so was Tebogo Maepa's house.
Congress had given a mandate that Free State maintain their status of a region for a period of a year pending their growth to a thousand members, that the National Executive of Nupsaw reviews their status. Free State enjoyed the status of a region for a year. The Free State region unfortunately did not grow, in fact their membership declined. The NEC resolved to take away the status of a region. There was an interim structure formed, but unfortunately their chairman did not show commitment.
Despite the disappointments from the structure, there are few individuals who have shown commitment namely Comrades Mbangula, Malope, Mkololo and Gebuza from the Eastern Cape .
Comrade Gebuza and Mbangula have been instrumental in recruiting new members from both public and private health. Comrade Mbangula is also involved in salary negotiations in the private sector. Comrade Mkololo also assists with case handling.
Northern Cape has not shown any growth, these comrades chose not to do any recruitment. Comrades Thulo and Vuyiswa Qalinga have shown willingness to support any recruitment initiative.
Mpumalanga has been stable until recently where Comrade Poppy Mlotshwa has submitted a dozen of new recruits.
The union has tasked comrade Sbu Nkwanyana to assist with the growth of these regions. I appeal to the comrades in these regions to give him all the support he will need to accomplish his task.
Since our last congress we had lost many comrades through death. Some of them have succumbed to the HIV virus, some where involved in accidents, among these comrades was Comrade Seabata and Comrade Lidzhade former chairpersons of Free State and Limpopo respectively. We also witnessed the passing away of two staff members from KZN, comrades Girlie Mthembu and Khanyo Phakathi, organisor and admin staff respectively.
On the negotiation front, we have yet again been sold-out by those in the majority. They signed a salary agreement after we have been on a strike, they claimed to have a mandate on the following day from members to sign a sell-out agreement. The trade unions were engaged in creative accounting, they were instrumental in coming up to a 6,2% and in so doing ensured that going forward they would lock us into a three year agreement that offers a meager inflation related increase. The problem I have with inflation related inflation, other factors are not taken into consideration e.g. petrol increase which has a huge impact is not factored into.
Unions agreed to a housing allowance that is phased in from January 2005. In principle this allowance meager as it is allows members to access funds, the problem is that it has many restrictions.
The employer has introduced a new Medical Aid Scheme (GEMS). The NEC has resolved that it is not opposed to the scheme if members are allowed to join freely i.e. there is no compulsion.
There is a concern that information from the various Council Chambers is not reaching all the members on the ground. Nupsaw will have to derive a new communication strategy in this regard.
Growth
The union has shown substantial growth, twenty five percent (25%) to be exact since the last Congress, this despite misinformation from those who would like to see us cease to exist. All those unions who are in an acting together arrangement have shown a substantial decline.
