Address by Dr ZL Mkhize, Premier of the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the Provincial Legislature on the public service strike

Mr Speaker
Colleagues in the Executive
Deputy Speaker
Honourable members of the Legislature

I want to thank the Speaker for convening this special sitting of the Legislature to reflect on the ongoing strike by the Public Sector Unions.

Equally, I want to express my appreciation to the Honourable members for attending this special sitting.

In my first address as the Premier of the province of KwaZulu-Natal, I pointed out that all the parties in this House are a product of our democracy and the true representation of the will of all our people.

Critically, I emphasised that all of us, jointly, in this House have a huge responsibility to deliver a better life for all our people from both the ranks of the ruling party and the opposition benches.

I said this because close to 80% of the people in the province who were registered to vote in the last general elections cast their votes. This was a reflection of the high expectations they have about what we the elected representatives would collectively achieve to deliver a better life for them all.

They voted for quality healthcare, effective and compassionate health services. They voted decent education and an efficient system of human development to turn the young minds into the human resources that will develop their skills and make a contribution to a better South Africa. They voted for a responsive government service that will solve the problems they face o their daily struggles to make their lives better.

We can’t fail them.

We are facing an unprecedented challenge in the form of the current industrial action involving the public sector unions. I have asked that I be given an opportunity to give a brief report about the worrying trends of this strike and seek the wise counsel of this House as to how we may proceed in managing this situation.

Wage negotiations in the public service have been unsuccessful leading to strikes, which while in general have been protected they were marked by extreme levels of illegal activities.

Wage negotiations were underway and towards the end of July 2010 there was dissatisfaction expressed by Organised Labour culminating in the PSA commencing with picketing on 29 July 2010.

This was followed by notice to strike by COSATU affiliated Unions leading up to the full blown strike which commenced on 10 August 2010. In the interim, however, these Unions also joined with PSA with a view to mobilizing for the strike.

The initial wage offer was rejected and even the increased offer made by government of 7% salary increase and R700 housing allowance was further rejected.

The following groups of public sector trade unions have embarked on a strike.

1. Congress of South African Trade Unions
2. South African Democratic Teachers Union
3. Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwys Unie
4. National Provincial Teacher’s Organisation of South Africa
5. National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union
6. Public Servants Association
7. Health and Other Services Personnel Association
8. Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union
9. Food and Allied Workers Union
10. Democratic Nurses’ Union Organisation of South Africa
11. South African Police Union
12. Southern African Democratic Nurses Union
13. Public and Allied Workers Union of South Africa
14. National Teachers Union

The government respects and recognises the right for employees to embark on a strike, i.e. the withholding of their labour as part of a process for bargaining for improvement of working conditions. It is a right enshrined in the constitution and has to operate with the framework of the law; including the right to picket and march in a peaceful manner to publicise their grievances without fear of dismissal or victimisation by the state.

The industrial action we have witnessed in the past week have shown extreme callousness and inhuman actions unexpected in our country in this day and age such as attack on nurses and doctors and patients, withholding of food to patients, sabotaging the operations of the health services in various ways. Hereunder follows a brief account of the events and the situation based on the latest reports:

Impact of the strike in health facilities

The most worrying development in the sixteen years of liberation is that law abiding citizens and the most vulnerable members of our society who try to access public health institutions have been subjected to a wholesale of lawness and threats.

Other specific actions that have been reported to us that are widespread and general to all parts of the province are:-

• Union members on a broad range disrupting the essential services in hospitals
• Disruptions of provision of ARVs to critical patients at Hospitals and clinics
• Threats, intimidation and violent attacks by union members on staff at hospitals.
• Blocking entrances to health facilities.

The area that had the highest number of incidents relating to the strike is eThekwini. More than 300 patients mostly surgical and ICU have been transferred to private facilities with an estimated cost of R1 million.

The hotspots are as follows:

King Edward Hospital

Staff intimidation is rife with health workers being removed from the Institution.

RK Khan Hospital

The institution has been fairly stable throughout the strike action.

Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital (MGMH)

MGMH patient load was done at Osindisweni Hospital until mid last week. There has been picketing with no disruption of services.Staff intimidation began after the 10 August 2010 with no nursing staff at the hospital by the 12 August 2010. The doctors were on their own with the patients with District staff assisting. Only three nurses were on duty.

Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital (PMMH)

PMMH staff member's car was burnt to ashes and last night one nurse sustained a head injury.

Mortuaries

There has been a complete shut-down of mortuaries in eThekwini since the strike with some instruments had gone missing.

Umkhanyakude, Uthungulu and Zululand Districts

These districts have been fairly stable except for Manguzi, Nkandla and Mseleni Hospitals.

Ilembe District

Since the beginning of the strike, Stanger Hospital has been functioning with skeleton staff but after the 10 August 2010 the hospital was only run with Matrons, Doctors and Managers from the District Office.Volunteers are performing cleaning and clerical duties at the hospital.

All clinics have been affected and are currently closed.Only Ndulinde clinic is functional.

Ugu District

Murchison Hospital was invaded by strikers on 18 and 19 August 2010 and 51 persons were arrested at Murchison Hospital on 19 August 2010. All MDR Patients sent home with treatment and all wards were collapsed to make 2 wards due to staff shortages. On 22 August 2010 the patients returned to the Hospital.

Mortuaries

No mortuary technicians and no drivers at Scottburgh and Harding Mortuaries. The South African Police Service (SAPS) have assisted therefore, no backlog.

Umgungundlovu District

In another incident, a senior technical advisor for Antiretroviral Treatment, Sexually Transmitted Infections and Voluntary Counselling and Testing in the Department of Health within Umgungundlovu District office was deployed to Greys Hospital to assist because the staff there responsible for dispensing ARVs had been chased away by protesters. Most staff members are afraid to go to the hospitals to collect ARVs for patients because of fear of violence.

Edendale Hospital

There has been a lot of intimidation with one staff member assaulted on 19 August 2010. No patients have been sent to private facilities as of yet. Paediatric services have moved from Edendale Hospital to Greys Hospital.

Grey's Hospital

At Grey’s Hospital on numerous occasions the hospital was deliberately flooded with taps and with fire hydrants left opened and unattended by protesters.

This has caused unnecessary disruption in the provision of quality patient care. In-patients have been affected because they have had to be discharged before the due date of their discharge. Some patients have been transferred to private hospitals and this will have far reaching consequences for the budget of the hospital.

On 19 August 2010 three nurses were assaulted. One closed ward was flooded with water and one nurse’s car's tyre slashed. There were only 5% nursing staff on duty.

Two cases have been referred to private facilities.

Northdale Hospital

From 10 August 2010 there has been serious intimidation of staff with most of the staff forced out. The Pharmacy and patient admin are not functional. The Management have been covering laundry, kitchen, mortuary and patient admin duties. The District Office have dealt with ARV patients.

East Boom Street CHC

Patients and staff have been locked out with staff being intimidated. The gates have been locked with strikers padlocks. The management and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) have been managing antiretroviral (ARV), chronic and tuberculosis (TB) patients.

Imbalenhle CHC

Locked out, intimidation and gates locked with strikers padlocks.

Umgeni Hospital

There has been a lot of intimidation. Friends of Umgeni Hospital, district office staff and management are running the Institution.

Fort Napier & Townhill Hospitals

No staff on duty from 20 August 2010. Last week two bakkies came into Fort Napier Hospital with sjamboks and hit the kitchen staff; therefore, over the weekend Fort Napier Hospital had no nurses or kitchen staff on duty.

Volunteers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) assisted at Fort Napier over the weekend.

Townhill Hospital

Three patients absconded from the institution but were found inside the premises with one patient found outside the hospital premises by SAPS.

Umzinyathi District

Hospitals that have been affected are:

Charles Johnson Memorial Hospital

From 19 August 2010 the hospital has been operating with matrons. There has been a lot of intimidation of staff.

Church of Scotland Hospital

There has been a lot of intimidation of staff however, the hospital is operational.

Greytown Hospital:

There has been a lot of intimidation of staff; however the hospital is operational.

Dundee Hospital

There has been a lot of intimidation of staff during the strike action.

Uthukela District

There has been threats and intimidation towards management and staff in the district. Twelve patients, mostly surgical, has been transferred to the private sector.

Estcourt Hospital severely affected as well as District Hospital. By the end of last week i.e. 20 August 2010, there was 0% attendance at Estcourt Hospital.

Ladysmith Hospital

Patients have been blocked at the gates and only emergencies let into the hospitals but no staff available to provide care.

Emergency medical rescue services (EMRS)

EMRS emergency transfers have taken place to other institutions.

All clinics functional except for Bergville Clinic where some staff were removed.

Emmaus Hospital

Skeleton staff forcefully removed leaving the attendance to 0%.

Amajuba District

No patients have been transferred to the private sector.

On 19 August 2010 a truck that was carrying coal for Madadeni Hospital was stopped and the autoclaving was done at Newcastle Hospital. However, the following day the truck was able to deliver the coal to Madadeni Hospital under police escort.

Attendance is at approximately 90% at all institutions.

10% of nursing staff on duty during the weekend of 21 and 22 August 2010.

Five clinics were locked by the strikers and opened by SAPS and management thereafter. Two clinics closed on 23 August 2010.

Sisonke District

Two patients have been transferred to St Augustine Hospital.

Only Rietvlei Clinic has been closed.

On 18 August 2010, at about 14h00 a doctor at Rietvlei Hospital reported to management of the hospital that she was struggling to get an ambulance to transfer a three month old baby to Grace Hospital because the ambulance driver had been chased out of work by porters. This baby later died.

In the same hospital, the CEO, HR manager and medical manager were locked inside offices by protesters and were eventual rescued by police.

Leaders of the union who claimed to represent one trade union gave the management an instruction that they would allocate three nurses for each ward, one community service pharmacist, two radiographers in x-ray unit, one person at the laundry and three food service staff at the hospital kitchen. 

They also said all other departments would be shut down. They then escorted the HR manager to departments to remove all other employees that exceeded the number they had allocated to the wards.

EG Usher and Rietvlei Hospitals has been operating on skeleton staff since 19 August 2010. Since this morning, 24 August 2010, there is 100% attendance at Rietvlei Hospital even though the nurses are wearing casual clothes due to fear of being identified.

Situation in the education department

The strike has virtually ground the operations in the various departmental offices and schools to a standstill. Many district offices report that they have either become inaccessible for non-striking employees or are forced to shut down as early as 9h00 or 9h30 every morning all because of threats and intimidation by striking employees.

The most seriously affect district offices are:

Umlazi, Empangeni, Vryheid, Amajuba, Ilembe, Ugu, Othukela, Umzinyathi, Sisonke and Umgungundlovu.

The HR and Finance Service Centres have also been rendered almost completely in-operational. eThekwini and Ladysmith have been brought to a complete standstill. Pietermaritzburg has also suffered severe disruptions. Ulundi was operating at almost full capacity, but was disrupted today, 20 August 2010.

In the initial stages of the disruptions, the modus operandi was that the strikers would arrive at the offices at about 9h00 in the morning and disruptions would start at about that time. This seems to be changing somewhat in that strikers are now reported to be arriving at some of the offices as early as 06h30 in the morning to prevent access into the offices by non-striking employees.

Yesterday, the Pietermaritzburg Street Building, which is a seat for a number of Head Office components, experienced disruptions by strikers with the result that most non-striking employees left early .Many locks in the offices were stuffed with papers and gum/putty, making it impossible to insert keys to open office door. Locksmiths had to be called in to resolve the problem.

The school situation is even more depressing: not only is it a mammoth task obtaining information from the schools, perhaps as a result of SADTU's directive to principals and educators for them not to cooperate, but the picture that emerges from those schools in respect of which reports have been received is that the vast majority of schools have been closed and those that are still functional are operating at a minimum level. The following gives a glimpse of the gravity of the situation:

Date: 20 August 2010

Based on the picture above, the department extrapolates that over 2.5 million children have been adversely affected by the strike action.

Modus operandi

From all affidavits submitted to the department, it is clear that the modus operandi of the disruptive strikers is the same throughout the province.

Groups of strikers, in red t-shirts (mostly SADTU), drive from school to school in convoys of between 30 and 40 cars. When they get to the schools, they toyi-toyi in front of the school gates. If the school authorities fail to open the gates, the strikers storm the school, and instruct the principal to shut the school down.

In many instances, strikers shout obscenities at non-striking teachers, learners, and parents collecting their children.

Some schools have reported damage to property. At Durban Girls High, the main gate was forcibly broken after the school authorities refused to open it.

Learners have been reported to be disrupted even in independent study outside school premises. The department has confirmed the widely reported incident of the disruption of learners in Scottburgh (Country Club).

Social development services 

The social services have also been disrupted throughout the province. The disruption is mainly characterised by union members forcing entry to service delivery offices, intimidating staff members that are not on strike, forcing them out of offices. This has affected the provision of various social grants to the vulnerable members of our communities. The psychological support and counseling services which government has made available free of charge to the victims has been severe affected. 

There have been six cases of assaults that have been reported to the police and management of the Department of Social Development. There have been cases of and damage to property as well. In some instances the strikers have cut off electricity supply to service delivery offices which have really disrupted service delivery. 

Response from government

I, together with the members of the Executive Council, have the power and the responsibility to administer the province which includes safeguarding the security of the province and protecting the lives of the citizens residing in the province.

On the evening of 20 August 2010, a special meeting of the Cabinet was held. The Cabinet received reports, which we believed to be credible and reliable, of threats to life of law-abiding citizens instigated by the unions participating in the Public Employees strike.

There were reports that in some cases the South African police were not reacting effectively to reports or on what they observe and are in some participating and encouraging unlawful behavior.We engaged with the Provincial Commissioner in an attempt to address these issues.

The seriousness of the cases of intimidation, lawlessness by strikers and compromising of patient care led to intervention at Government level, both national and provincial. In KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) an interdict was obtained on Saturday, 21 August 2010, preventing strikers and/or protesters from intimidating/assaulting staff and members of the public at health and education institutions, inclusive of provincial buildings. The picket line was set at 50 metres from the main entrance of all provincial governmental premises.

However, we have appealed that striking teachers should respect the rights of those who decide not to join the industrial action. Also we condemned the damage to public property and the forceful disruption of normal schooling by striking teachers.

Government wishes to inform the public that schools will remain open and we call on all communities to play their role to ensure the supervision of learners and safety of learners.

The provincial education department district managers are monitoring the impact of the strike and are reporting to the provincial department of education on a daily basis. The managers have been given the responsibility to provide support to schools, as required.

The managers are in constant contact with the local police stations to ensure that we are able to respond speedily to any eventuality.

The Department has taken measures to ensure that we are able to mitigate its impact on learning and teaching, as far as is possible.

These includes:-

• Learning support materials which is provided to learners via the print and electronic media
• The department is working closely with SABC Education to continue to provide revision programmes aimed at Grades 11 to 12 on both radio and television.

As government we wish to remind the public that there are less than 64 days to the start of the matric examinations. We therefore called on leaders of our society, traditional leaders, religious leaders and all communities to assist learners during this difficult period.

We say so because the good matric results are not about the school but about the impact that impact that the learners will make in the community and in the country’s economy and future development.

Madam Speaker, we are of the belief that we should endeavor by all means to restore order and reason to the conduct of the strike. We therefore resolved at the meeting of 20 August 2010 to apply for the interdict.

On 21 August 2010, the Provincial Government obtained a court interdict. According to the interdict, all the respondents and all members of the respondents (public sector unions on strike) are hereby interdicted and restrained from:

• preventing or threatening to prevent any person from entering or leaving any hospital, clinic, school, mortuary and all provincial governmental offices within the province of KZN
• assaulting and/or intimidating or threatening to assault and/or intimidate any person engaged in the business of any hospital, clinic, school, mortuary and all provincial governmental offices within the province of KZN
• damaging or threatening to damage any hospital, clinic, school, mortuary and all provincial governmental office property within the province of KZN

This court interdict is aimed at ensuring that the rights of learners, patients as well as the rights of non-striking workers are not infringed upon.

We have also appointed an Industrial Action Committee which was announced in this house last week comprising of MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Ms Nomsa Dube, MEC for Community Safety and Security Mr TW Mchunu, MEC for Social Development M Radebe and MEC for Human Settlement MEC M Govender.

This team has developed a rapid response system which provides regular reports to the provincial executive council.

Madam Speaker, we have the responsibility to protect the rights of the citizens. We have the responsibility to protect the most vulnerable members of our society using the Constitution as the guide. 

The Constitution is the foundation of the laws and policies of the country. It sets out principles, such as fairness and human dignity, upon which the country is run. It protects the fundamental rights of all South Africans.

On people's health rights, the constitution says:

• Everyone has the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well being
• Everyone has the right to have access to health care services, including reproductive health care; sufficient food and water; and social security if they are unable to support themselves and their dependants
• Every child has the right to basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services. 

I thank you.