Six thousand caregivers in the Eastern Cape were informed
that they will again not be paid at the end of May 2012. This is the second
month without payment due to supposed lack of funds. The Eastern Cape
government has said it will ask national government for extra money as they
have ‘run out of funds’.
Without the caregivers who are in clinics and hospitals
around the province, who work as HIV counsellors and home-based carers, in the
main centres and in the rural areas, the entire health care system would
collapse, yet the state has said they have run out of funds to pay the R1500
per month ‘stipend’ for this essential service to the community. How
did this happen and what does it mean for the National Health Insurance
(NHI) that the ANC, SACP and Cosatu leaders hold up as a great benefit to the
working class? Nehawu is actively campaigning for the NHI.
Every budget since 1994 has fundamentally continued the
trend of the old regime, namely that state expenses support the capitalist
system and thus the continued exploitation of the masses by big capital. As the
crisis of world capitalism has deepened, the state has adjusted its plans to
bail out the capitalists and to take more and more from the masses. Across the
world, capitalist regimes have been cutting down on public health expenditure.
South Africa is no exception.
One of the ways of collapsing the public health is by not
filling all the vacant posts. Thus by the end of the financial year, when there
is unexpended funds (money left over), it is deducted from the next budget. In
this way, there are more funds to divert towards the big capitalists through
fake infrastructure projects and through cuts in taxes for the bosses. The old
regime charged the bosses a tax of 48% but now they only charge the capitalists
28% tax on their profits. Thus the burden of public expenses is shifted more
onto the backs of the working class.
When the need arose to service communities, the state now
employs casualised workers, such as the care-givers, through special funding.
But the funding for the permanent posts was there, but it has been deliberately
cut. So now the Eastern Cape can parade the false argument that they have no
funds. Where has the money gone to that is supposed to be for the wages of the
caregivers? It has gone to the fake infrastructure projects, the building of
ten more coal and nuclear power stations while industry has collapsed and less
electricity is being used. The health workers’ wages have gone to Anglo
American, the JP Morgan Chase bank- their profits are more important than the
wages of the caregivers, says the government. Let the health care collapse,
says the regime, as long as their real bosses, Anglo American, get their money.
If the government cannot even reinstate all the necessary
permanent posts in the health sector, this means that the planned NHI will be
based on a collapse of the public health sector. This means that workers will
have to suffer an extra 10% tax to fund being able to go to private clinics and
hospitals. In other words the state is creating and propping up a fake
industry, called the private health sector. Who controls the private health
sector? The banks, the same JP Morgan Chase that controls Anglo American, will
benefit. When workers health insurance runs out, workers will be evicted from
the private clinics (maybe even after 1 day or less)- this is the system that
the Cosatu, SACP and ANC leaders are promoting. In the USA, millions are
excluded from the health insurance, yet the ANC government and our leaders want
to force this same system down workers throats.
Further proof that the NHI will be based on boosting the
private sector is that hundreds of caregivers have been for 1-2 year training,
yet they cannot get work in the public clinics and hospitals. With this
training, a few have managed to get work in private clinics and hospitals. Most
of those who have been trained have returned to being casual caregivers.
19.5.2012
issued by Workers
International Vanguard Party (formerly Workers International Vanguard
League); 1st Floor, Community House, 41 Salt River rd, Salt River,
7925, ph 021 4476777; ph 0822020617, workersinternational@gmail.com ;
website: www.workersinternational.org.za