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The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union in the Western Cape [NEHAWU] notes with disgust the statement by the Minister of Employment and Labour [Mr Thulas “Fire-Pool” Nxesi] alleging that there is an agreement with COSATU in liaison with DoEL which NEHAWU was failing to honour. 

Firstly, as an affiliate and member of the Provincial Executive Committee of COSATU in the Western Cape, NEHAWU want to make it unequivocally clear that there is no agreement between COSATU and the Department of Employment and Labour. It is therefore factually incorrect and misleading for the Minister to claim that there was an existing agreement. For a Minister in his position, it is expected to at least have a basic comprehension of what constitute an agreement in the context of the collective bargaining.

Once again, this is a display of the sheer laziness from the Minister to perform due diligence in establishing the factual operations within his department instead he choose to mislead the public like he not so long ago tried to convince the entire country that a swimming pool was a fire pool.

It is a fact that there is an arrangement and not an agreement between COSATU and the Department of Employment and Labour in the Western Cape through which any complaints or requests for inspections would be processed. Our understanding with COSATU is the same on this arrangement…. “We herewith advise that we have an arrangement that Unions should submit their complaints through the COSATU office. We will then consolidate the complaints and submit them to Mr Ntamo and Mr Esau. We never agreed that Unions can`t liaise directly with the Department. Furthermore the DOEL has failed from their side to address the majority of complaints which were filed through our Office on behalf of Unions and workers. They gave us a commitment that they will give us regular feedback which never happened. To date, we only received one consolidated report.”….COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary.

As NEHAWU, we have been consistent in participating through this platform and we have on record been the leading union in processing communique through this platform led by the COSATU Provincial Secretary.

Furthermore, it is incorrect for the Minister to claim this arrangement as this came into existence after NEHAWU launched an official complaint to COSATU for intervention as the Department was dismally failing to respond to, or even acknowledge our submissions. The NEHAWU Provincial Secretariat has been consistent in attending these sessions between COSATU and the DoEL represented by Mr Ntamo and Mr Esau who are senior managers and Provincial Inspector in the Western Cape respectively.

In this regard, we find it absurd that the Minister disregards the above factual information and opt for the unfounded distortions in the excuse of a statement he issued. Moreover, we find it divisive for the Minister to want to portray NEHAWU as a union acting outside of COSATU. We are calling on the Minister to stop being lazy and request recordings and minutes of these meetings from his officials [Mr Ntamo and Mr Esau] so that he can see for himself that NEHAWU never missed even one meeting.

These are the very same meetings where as COSATU we were laying bare the blatant incompetence of the DoEL in responding to and addressing non-compliance within various workplaces. We find it extremely reckless for the Minister to utter factually incorrect statements but fails to address the lack of Occupational Health and Safety Committees within his own department, the fact that the Paarl office, Worcester office, Bellville office and Cape Town office all had to shut down due to non-compliance with COVID 19 safety protocols.

By the way, the non-compliance with safety standards of the Department of Employment and Labour offices in Cape Town has been identified long before COVID 19 and this office has been closed numerous times before. Even now as we speak we have numerous submission for inspection that we submitted through COSATU from as early as April but none of them had been addressed by the department.

As NEHAWU Western Cape, we refuse to take Minister Nxesi serious because this is the same person that deliberately mistook the entire country for a circus by trying to convince everyone that a mere swimming pool was a fire pool. Just like his attitude back then [Minister of Public works] where workers and members of NEHAWU in particular had to take the fall for his fire pool, he is once again abandoning bread and butter issues of workers and as NEHAWU we shall stop at nothing in ensuring that the fire pool saga does not repeat itself.

Statement issued by NEHAWU Western Cape Secretariat