Barely 10 months after its seventh national congress, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is embroiled in an organisational crisis that threatens the unity of the union.
Tensions reached boiling point this week, when a faction comprising the regional leadership of the Western Cape, Hlangalani, Western Transvaal, Wits Central West and Mpumalanga accused the current Numsa leadership of abusing power and trying to “destabilise a group that voted against it during last year’s congress”. Together, the membership of these regions comprise a majority in Numsa.
The congress, which saw the re- election of the general secretary Silumko Nondwangu and president Mtutuzeli Tom, was marked by political divisions along provincial lines.
Nondwangu and Tom enjoyed the support of the Eastern Cape, Ekurhuleni, Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal regions. The opposing faction voted against the current leadership, accusing it of being too close to the African National Congress.
The group, which has been labelled “ultra-left” by the Nondwangu camp, says the current leadership is waging a campaign to purge “those who stood against elected office bearers” during the last congress. The leftist group says this has been done by removing regional leaders from their positions. A document titled We are not Numsa’s stepchildren; We will not fold our arms whilst our union is run aground, distributed at the union’s central executive committee this week and signed by “concerned staff”, claims the national leadership is undermining the authority of regions that voted against it.
“Various tricks are utilised to achieve this sinister objective. The tactic is direct removal and if you can’t discredit them, pit locals against regional office bearers and instigate members against controversial shop stewards,” the report reads.
The group claims that since the union’s sixth congress in 2000, seven leaders perceived to be opposed to the leadership of Nondwangu and Tom, have been dismissed. Nondwangu dismisses the revolt against national office bearers as an attempt by the leftist bloc to topple the current leadership.
“In the aftermath of the seventh national congress, individual leaders met without the knowledge of their regions to plot a campaign of destabilisation against the decisions of the congress, to plot for a permanent crisis in Numsa which will lead to them being elected as the new national office bearers.
“This entails an ascending to power through a deliberate crisis and false pretences,” said Nondwangu in a secretariat report presented to Numsa’s central executive committee meeting.
Also, battle lines are being drawn at the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) as the jockeying for position increases in the run-up to its congress next October. In weekend newspaper reports Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said a faction within Sadtu was out to discredit the union’s president, Willie Madisha, to prevent him from being re-elected next year.
Madisha had been accused of misusing union funds to pay a R14 600 tax debt, but Vavi said the union had failed to deduct tax from his monthly travel and subsistence allowance over several years, and that Madisha would repay the amount over the next 24 months.