The Citizen reports that on Monday the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said its members would not be campaigning for the ANC in the upcoming local government elections.

This development followed a two-day meeting of Nehawu’s national political commission at the weekend, which resolved to use its financial and human resources towards fighting government’s freeze on wage increases for public servants. The Cosatu affiliate’s president Mzwandile Makwayiba said the union had at its last congress resolved to vote for the ANC, however, they did not have money to campaign for the governing party this year. Makwayiba said Nehawu’s central committee meeting in December last year had not been able to make a decision on increasing members’ subscription fees, which had had a major impact on its budget. “Therefore, we decided that we will use the money we have for the service of our members including the dispute that is in the Constitutional Court for the non-implementation of resolution one of 2018 … Therefore, we don’t have money to campaign for the ANC and we will not deploy people to campaign for the ANC because that will want us to pay for petrol or food for campaigning.” However, Makwayiba said Nehawu members were not being instructed to vote against the ANC. Last month, labour federation Cosatu said it planned to convene a special meeting of its central executive committee (CEC) to deliberate on its support for the ANC ahead of this year’s local government elections.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thapelo Lekabe at The Citizen

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