NEHAWU KZN is Disgusted by the utterance from the ANC Secretary, Bheki Mtolo Against the Union
Sunday July 21, 2024The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] in KwaZulu-Natal is enraged by the malicious and savage slander by the ANC Provincial Secretary, Bhekinkosi Mtolo, directed against NEHAWU.
As NEHAWU, we normally don’t respond to non-sensical diatribe but on Mtolo, we take an exception to this political buffoon called Mtolo.
We are reminded of the words of Bertolt Brecht that “the worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud…… The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute...”
Indeed, these words succinctly describe Mtolo, a political illiterate, political courtesan and an imbecile who doesn’t know the role of our members in providing quality public services to our people. He doesn’t have an appreciation of the challenges confronting our members and the working-class as a result of the implementation of neoliberal policies by the then ANC led government and now Government of National Unity.
It’s unfortunate that the ANC in KZN finds itself led by a political moron like Mtolo, who has become a loose cannon at the detriment of the movement. This man represents the highest deterioration of leadership calibre of the ANC in the province. It’s disheartening that the ANC is led by a demented and a lazy thinking leader in the form of Bheki Mtolo.
We call upon the ANC to really analyse his statement and what he implies about the ANC in government to the public, to a point that he believes that GNU would do better than the ANC in responding to failures of the ANC in the last 30 years of the democratic breakthrough. This analysis will help the ANC to make a determination whether Mtolo is working for the ANC or against the ANC using his strategic position, because in our view he is working at the detriment of the ANC and congress movement as a whole.
We have for a while observed his erratic behaviour which has been devoid of congress politics. This behaviour which has semblance of lunacy has costed the ANC in the province, from his outbursts of continuously insulting workers even to the extent of casting aspersions on the Monarch. We are not shocked nor surprised though, as Mtolo is said to have a record of mental illness, we wonder if he has not relapsed as his behaviour is that of a person that is not mentally stable [uhlanya]. We wish to remind Mtolo that it will be our members who will be attending to him when his mental illness worsens. Moreover, the ANC will be needing the same NEHAWU members in two years to come for the local government elections who is he currently dishing- out in favour of GNU today.
It has hardly been two months since the national general elections took place wherein the ANC in the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal suffered the most humiliating electoral defeat since the dawn of democracy. Instead of accounting for this loss, Bheki Mtolo true to his buffoonish and clownish character goes on a tirade spewing anti NEHAWU diatribe thus further alienating the ANC from its primary motive forces which is the working class.
Mtolo’s utterances towards our members demonstrates his appreciation or lack thereof of the devastating impact the ANC's neo-liberal policy of austerity has had on the working class. Other issues that have contributed to the ANC’s electoral decline are rampage corruption, maladministration, staff shortages, dilapidated infrastructure that includes un-roadworthy ambulances and patient transport, shortage of medicines, etc. It is our view that Mtolo’s idiocy and sheer ignorance has become a burden to the ANC.
It is actually disheartening that these unwarranted attacks are cast against a revolutionary and transformative union, whose members continue to invest their limited union resources on a public service delivery campaign with intentions to achieve improved quality service to our people in order to better their lives particularly, the working class and the poor as well as contributing to the building of a capable and developmental state that intervenes to societal needs.
It is this campaign of the union that has given rise to strategic policy developments and strategic plans grounded from ten (10) point plans for departments such as Social Development and Health to mention a few in the public service. These plans were aimed at addressing the immediate task of accelerating quality service delivery including ensuring the implementation of the National Health Insurance, improving Quality Healthcare and revitalisation of infrastructure amongst others.
At worst, when people like Mtolo were under lockdown restrictions of COVID-19 in 2020, NEHAWU members were at the forefront risking their lives and their loved ones in defence of the South African nation against the vicious pandemic without protective measures and with no token of appreciation from the ANC led government which Mtolo is a Provincial Secretary to. Yet, he has audacity stand up today to make a comment about NEHAWU members instead of spending time criss-crossing the province accounting to members of the ANC on his leadership inability to take the ANC to an outright election victory than justifying the GNU to cushion his inability to give confidence to KZN electorate to support the ANC.
In decisively dealing with the organisational disarray in the province, as well as the growing distance from the people that has eroded its moral ground and significantly weakened its political capacity, in order to begin arresting the continued loss of confident by the people in our movement - NEHAWU calls on the ANC to hastily act against and rid itself off deranged and reckless leaders, who have contributed to this dire political disjuncture, such as Mtolo.
In this regard, we are giving Bheki Mtolo 48 hours to retract his degrading remarks towards NEHAWU and issue a public apology failing which we will be declaring him a persona non grata who will never address any gathering where NEHAWU will be present. We are also calling upon the ANC in the province reign in on its rogue Provincial Secretary. As NEHAWU, in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, we vow to no longer submit to such intolerable deportment and will thus demonstrate our collective mighty to register our indignation.
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Issued by NEHAWU KwaZulu-Natal Secretariat Office
For more information, please contact: Ayanda Zulu (Provincial Secretary) at 081 758 5199 or email: Ayandaz@nehawu.org.za
Ntokozo Nxumalo (Provincial Deputy Secretary) at 0815255983 or email: Ntokozo@Nehawu.org.za
Visit https://www.nehawu.org.za