New Year’s Message from TAC General Secretary
Comrades, I hope that we are still enjoying ourselves with our families and loved ones during this festive season. 2020 has been a very long year, lots of things have happened for the good or evil side. The advent of COVID-19 has disrupted a lot of activities and also claimed lots of lives. Many people have lost jobs and some businesses have closed.
The year 2020, marked 22 years since TAC was formed. The past 22 years of our struggle to fix the broken healthcare system of our country have not been easy at all but we remained resolute to the cause which our movement stands for.
On behalf of the national leadership, we take this moment to salute all TAC members and staff from all levels for the sterling work we continue providing to our communities and the public. It is the work that we do at the community level and elsewhere that makes TAC be what it is today.
2021 is going to be tough and harder considering the second wave of COVID-19. The number of healthcare workers who are going to succumb to COVID-19, inadequate beds, and poor healthcare services that we are all aware of. 2021, requires us as TAC members to firstly ensure that ourselves, our families, and communities safe from contracting COVID-19 and we must at all times remain vigilant against this deadly virus.
As we wrap 2020, let us also prepare ourselves for another long and tough year ahead of us. 2021 is the year of holding Provincial and National AGM’s with strong, visible, and active branches of TAC across the seven provinces. In the same spirit, we are going to use 2021 to establish new TAC branches in the North West, because the poor state of healthcare services in this province requires us to have functional structures to campaign on these issues, and hold duty bearers to account.
2021 will require TAC members and branches to pay more attention to issues of poor healthcare services that have engulfed our health department. As TAC we remain resolute and commit ourselves to advocate for Universal Health Coverage. If the NHI Bill is the vehicle for the majority of the public healthcare users to realise this dream, we will support it. But if the NHI Bill in its current form is still questionable in our view, then we must not be ashamed to point out our areas of concerns in the bill and continue to advocate for changes to be made and there’s nothing wrong with that.
The unity of the organisation, of the membership, of the staff, and of the entire leadership is sacrosanct and we must always strive towards achieving this.
As we continue enjoying ourselves with our loved ones, we must remember that our struggle is not over and people are still experiencing lots of challenges in our healthcare facilities, especially during this holiday period. Let us enjoy ourselves under the prevailing circumstances and adhere to the lockdown regulations.
“In the end, we will remember not the voices of our enemy, but the silence of our friends”.
On behalf of the leadership collective, we wish you all a happy new year and a prosperous 2021.
Asante sana!
Enkosi!
Anele Yawa
TAC General Secretary
