NUMSA Shop steward Elections Launch

This coming Saturday 18 July 2015, thousands of Numsa’s Shopstewards; clad in their union red colours will converge at Johannesburg’s City Hall, President Street, Central Business District (CBD).
They will gather in ululation, sing revolutionary songs, and display a jovial mood, as we kick-start the Shopstewards Elections, as per constitutional provisions of the Numsa constitution.
The launch will be taking place amidst the serious political and organisational paralysis, that are threatening the implosion of Cosatu, after its CEC took a divisive decision to remove General Secretary cde Zwelinzima Vavi from his elected position by workers, and expelling more than 365 000 workers from the Federation their built for many decades.
Accompanying this sad reality is the fact that for three years now Cosatu is consumed in boardroom battles, whilst on the other side of the fence workers are being brutalized willy-nilly by employers through retrenchments in order to maximize profits, and other workers, particularly at MTN have been involved in a month long strike, without any form of practical solidarity and support from Cosatu and its Affiliated unions.
The launch will be held under the strategic theme “Engineer your Future! Elect a fighting Shopsteward to defend your rights and advance the Numsa Moment”. The launch will coincide with world-wide celebrations in honour of our revolutionary icon, the late President Nelson Mandela. Cde Mandela occupies a special place in the hearts of workers and the poor of our country.
Numsa proudly recollects how its members at Mercedez Benz’s East London plant, freely gave their precious time and energy to build a Red Mercedez Benz for cde Mandela to mark his release Pollsmoor Prison, as a revolutionary gesture for his selfless sacrifice to the people of South Africa.
The Elections launch affirms Numsa’s founding traditions and principles, as a worker-controlled; independent; democratic; non-sexist and non-racial and activist based revolutionary trade union. Since our inception many years ago, dating back to our years as Metal and Allied Workers Union (MAWU, founded in 1973), we have remained true these founding values which have made us to be a revered “School of Excellence” for other trade unions, here at home and beyond our borders. We are making this claim with sincere humility it deserves!
The launch will be taking place within the context of massive and qualitative growth of this glorious union of Vuyisile Mini; Jabulile Ndlovu; John Gomomo; Mbuyiselo Ngwenda; Mtutuzeli Tom; Thembi Nabe; Phil Bokaba and countless others in the land of the departed. This massive growth has placed an enormous responsibility on the union as a whole, particularly to its elected leaders and officials, to work tirelessly in providing quality service to our members, and strengthening our organisational capacity to respond to the many demands of workers drawn from our existing sectors, as well as from the new sectors that we now organise, since the extension of our scope of organising.
The launch will be addressed by Numsa President ANDREW CHIRWA; General Secretary IRVIN JIM and ZWELINZIMA VAVI.
Furthermore, the launch will culminate in the election of Local, Regional and National Office Bearers, in the many Congresses that will take place from the beginning of 2016. As a result, the year 2016, will be a year of Congresses for Numsa, where ordinary members will elect their leaders to represent them and drive the work of the union for the next four years.
The details of the Launch are as follows:
DATE: Saturday 18 July 2015
TIME: 10am
VENUE: City Hall, President Street, Central Business District (CBD), Johannesburg, Gauteng province
Members of the media are hereby invited to attend and report.
Contact:
Castro Ngobese
National Spokesperson
Mobile: +2782 627 5197
Tel (dir): +2711 689 1702
Email: castron@numsa.org.za
Website: www.numsa.org.za
Twitter: @castrongobese

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