Nehawu KZN structures to drop ANC in favour of MK Party

KwaZulu-Natal's Umlazi district has become the launchpad for a lobby by public servants belonging to trade union National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) to dump the ANC in favour of former President Jacob Zuma's MK Party.

Nehawu structures in the area, boasting over 20 Nehawu branches and representing up to 15 000 members, were set to meet this weekend to finalise a petition on the proposal and present it to the union's upcoming ordinary meeting on September 12.

Branch leaders behind the lobby claim to have made headway in provinces like Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape, but the move, which is likely to face stern resistance, first has to garner support on the home ground, where the ANC lost the majority of electoral support to the MK Party in the recent national and provincial elections.

The seismic shift, revealed exclusively to Sunday World, has been brewing in the
cauldron of the ANC's messy relationship with Cosatu and the SACP.

Workers increasingly feel that the ANC no longer cares about them, a sentiment especially potent among Nehawu branches representing health sector workers in public health facilities, clinics, and hospitals.

Ntokozo Nxumalo, Nehawu KwaZulu-Natal deputy secretary, explained the union will attend to the formal proposal when received.

"We have not received any petitions from our members. But all I know is that we do not have a problem with the ANC per se, but we have a problem with an individual who is an ANC secretary called Bheki Mtolo," said Nxumalo, pointing fingers at the ANC
secretary in KwaZulu-Natal.

"We also have an issue with the government of national unity (GNU) because of the pronouncements that some parties forming the GNU have made against workers," he said.

Nxumalo, in response to a question about how the union's internal processes would unfold if branches tabled a formal proposal, explained that the union had never handled a motion of this nature before and therefore had no proper guidelines.

Khayelihle Mngadi, a Nehawu leader at Ngwelezana Hospital in Empangeni, didn't hold back,  saying  ANC policies now resembled those of the DA, especially regarding anti-worker stances. Other Nehawu branches in KwaZulu-Natal, he added, had already endorsed the proposal.

The proverbial final straw was the ANC's decision to team up with the DA and the IFP to govern KwaZulu-Natal, which Nehawu sees as back-pedalling on the democratic progress.

Phelelani Mhlanga, a Nehawu leader at Prince Mshiyeni Hospital in Umlazi, explained that mobilisation for the shift began after the May elections, with members concluding that their relationship with the ANC had expired.

"In fact, health facilities within the Umlazi district were the first to speak out. We feel that, as health workers, we're no longer a priority to the ANC. It has been worse since the formation of the government of national unity. So we want out," said Mhlanga.

The branch leaders said while the lobby had reached other provinces, in order to move as a solid block, Mpumalanga had agreed that the union should join forces with the MK Party.

Nehawu provincial secretary in Mpumalanga, Welcome Mnisi, laughed off the suggestion arising from KZN.

"Mpumalanga is a disciplined province. We have no such resolution in Mpumalanga or any other province.

"I'm a member of the national executive committee of the union, and there is no such proposal before us," Mnisi said.

The union's Limpopo provincial secretary Moses Maubanesaid they "are sticking with the national resolution to rally behind the ANC. Our province is united under the alliance."

Mzikayise Tshontshi said, "In Gauteng, we still remain committed to the decision on the national body to support the ANC, and that has not changed."

National spokesperson Lwazi Nkolonzi said,  "Nehawu is not dumping the ANC. We got the central executive committee in December last year that took a resolution to support the ANC, that's the position of Nehawu, and as things stand, that has not changed."