The National Office Bearers (NOBs) of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) strongly condemn the leaking of our internal documents to the media by unnamed sources and individuals.
The leaking or planting of our Special National Congress documents to the media, particularly to the Sunday Independent, shall not deter Numsa and its structures from freely and robustly engaging the paralysis within Cosatu and the Alliance.
We have been receiving calls from various media houses to comment on a leaked Numsa Special National Congress (SNC) document in their possession. As a rule, we don’t comment on leaked documents, since it feeds into the divisive agenda and anti-organisational behavior of those who are principally committed to destroying Numsa.
We are not at all surprised that the Cosatu President S’dumo Dlamini has compromised himself by making ill-informed conclusions and divisive utterances about Numsa, based on a leaked document. It is very strange that a Cosatu President felt it correct to use the media as a hot-line to engage the leaked document, without first verifying its authenticity and legitimacy in the union with Numsa NOBs. Numsa are now vindicated that the current Cosatu President has no possibility of uniting Cosatu and thus deserves a vote of no confidence.
In response to this leaked information we must say firstly, anyone that has questions or issues emanating from the leaked document, we would suggest that they approach the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) General Secretary Frans Baleni. Apparently in his pre-arranged interview with the Business Day (Numsa’s plan to poach raises ire, 17 October 2013), he seemed to suggest that he had sight of such a document.
Secondly, nowhere has Numsa suggested in any SNC documents that we are about to pounce on any union that has suffered membership losses due to splinter unions breaking away from them.
Thirdly, the Numsa SNC shall without fear or favour discuss all issues that are responsible for the crises in Cosatu, the Alliance which spring to life just before general elections and our approach to the 2014 provincial and national elections.
No amount of leaking of our SNC documents shall deter us from allowing Numsa members to honestly reflect on their own terms, the challenges that confront the working class and the poor in bourgeois South Africa today.
Already tentative reports suggest that the Numsa workplace discussions shaped the Numsa Local Shopsteward Council deliberations held on 19th October 2013 towards a successful Numsa Special National Congress. Numsa remains resolute and on course to deliver good results for workers and the working class with or without the support of the leadership of our movement.
Contact:
Castro Ngobese
National Spokesperson
Mobile: 0810111137