Critics of Numsa's secretary general, Irvin Jim, allege the union is drifting from its worker base and risks being captured by its investment arm to become a vehicle for petty bourgeois accumulation. (Gallo)
"After a thorough analysis, the [central committee] came to the extremely disturbing conclusion that significant and strategic parts of the national development plan were directly lifted from Democratic Alliance policy documents," National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim said in Johannesburg on Thursday.
"The reading of the documents is shocking, and that is what we are going to reveal to the public."
Jim was briefing the media on the outcomes of its central committee meeting.
He said in spite of some impressive announcements by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, the "fundamental flaw" in his budget was that it was based on the national development plan.
After going through the more than 400 pages of the plan document it came as a shock to discover this, said Jim.
At the ANC's national elective conference in Mangaung in December, delegates in commissions would have been given shortened versions of the document for their discussions and those who prepared it would have worked hard to lobby support for it.
The working class was outnumbered when it came to adopting it, he said.
Striking over the issue
Jim said Numsa had not yet formally raised this with the ANC but planned to do so in the future and also planned strikes over it.
Its major problem with the plan was that it protected power relations of colonialism, leaving them intact.
This was a "rightwing" deviation from the Freedom Charter that would bring the country closer to an implosion among the poor if not contested, Numsa said.
In July last year, the Mail & Guardian reported claims that Jim was intimided.
The alleged intimidation of Jim could be related to his views on nationalisation, said the union's president Cedric Gina.
Followed by a 'suspicious' car
Numsa in a statement said Jim was followed by a "suspicious" car while leaving the University of Zululand one night in July 2012, where he attended the South African Communist Party's (SACP) 13th national congress.
However, SACP secretary general Blade Nzimande said a group of legitimate security for the eThekwini mayor followed the wrong car. "It was an honest mistake, they followed the wrong car."
They thought they were following Durban mayor James Nxumalo, Nzimande told delegates at the SACP's congress.
He accused the media of sensationalising the incident and portraying KwaZulu-Natal as a "killing ground".
Numsa said Jim's security personnel stopped the car and confronted the occupants.
"When confronted, the occupants of the other car claimed that they thought the car belonged to … the mayor," spokesperson Castro Ngobese said. – Sapa