Newly-elected National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary David Sipunzi has two top priorities: Save Zwelinzima Vavi, and save NUM from bleeding to death.

He wants unity, he wants Vavi's expulsion from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) turned around, and he wants to win back ex NUM members who left to join Amcu.

Sipunzi, who was the NUM Free State secretary, defeated the union's long-standing general secretary Frans Baleni at an elective congress last week. He secured 357 of the votes and Baleni 345.

Baleni had been the NUM's general secretary for nine years. If he had been re-elected it would have been his fourth term at the helm.

Sipunzi, 54, was born in Willowvale in the Eastern Cape.

In 1985 he moved to the Free State to work underground at a mine in Welkom.

"I came to Welkom in 1985 and I was recruited into the NUM the same year," he told News24.

"I grew up in the NUM. I became a shaft secretary, I became a branch secretary. At some point I was elected a regional deputy secretary."

In November 1999, Sipunzi was elected the NUM's Free State regional secretary, a position he held until his election as the union's general secretary on Friday.

At the congress last week, some delegates who were supporting Sipunzi were rolling their hands in soccer sign used for change.

Bleeding under Baleni

There were those who believed that the NUM had been bleeding under Baleni.

Sipunzi was quick to dispel any notion that there were divisions in the NUM.

"There were different parties in congress, some for Frans and some for Sipunzi, but let me stress this - this did not mean that there were divisions in the NUM.

"That was democracy," he said.

Sipunzi said the congress was "water under the bridge" and it was now time for the union to hold hands and work together.

One of his priorities as the NUM's new general secretary is to unite mineworkers.

The NUM had seen a massive drop in membership over the last three years.

This was due to the rise of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) during the violent protests at the Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana in 2012.

"We call all those who have left for whatever reason to come back home," Sipunzi said.

"First of all we have to listen to people, go to them, hold mass meetings, hear what the problems are."

He said just as much as the union needed to listen to its members it also had to hear from those outside the union on what they thought went wrong in the NUM and caused them to leave.

"But the major thing is we have to talk directly with the members through mass meetings.

"It won't be an easy task, but we're looking forward to doing it."

Sipunzi has not counted out engaging with Amcu.

"We have no borders, we are all workers. If need be we will discuss with whoever.

"I always make this example. If the ANC could sit around the table with the... National Party, what stops workers from engaging each other?"

'Vavi must be welcomed back'

On the issues facing the embattled Cosatu, Sipunzi said unity could only be achieved if Vavi and Numsa were welcomed back into the fold.

"If we talk unity you can't be seen to be doing the opposite of it," he said on Wednesday.

"It's not necessarily that I have a soft spot for Vavi, or a soft spot for Numsa, I have a soft spot for unity."

This was a different stance to the NUM's leadership, under Baleni.

The NUM was part of the faction which wanted the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Vavi out of the trade union federation.

Numsa was expelled during a central executive committee meeting in November last year. Vavi was expelled at the end of March.

The NUM, under Baleni, had accused Numsa of poaching its members and it wanted the metalworkers union to withdraw resolutions it had taken at its special congress in December 2013, if it wanted to return to Cosatu.

Numsa has refused to do this.

At the special congress Numsa had resolved to expand its scope and to not support the African National Congress in the general elections among other things. The union was expelled for contravening Cosatu's constitution.

Sipunzi however gives the impression that the decision to vote for the expulsion of Numsa and Vavi was not mandated by majority of the NUM's members.

"On some issues we just say as leaders we were given a mandate on the day we were elected and we stop consulting from time to time.

"Here apparently that is what happened because we never consulted thoroughly with our members at grassroots level on the matter. As the leadership it took a stance," he said.

Sipunzi said the new NUM leadership will go out and hear what the union's members have to say.

"We need to hear what the members of the organisation are saying, we can't just decide on their behalf on serious issues like that of expelling another leader, a leader that was elected by a congress" he said referring to Vavi.

"It means we are undermining the very same congress."

On the dismissal of Numsa's urgent application on Tuesday in a bid to get the court to order that it be allowed to participate in Cosatu's special national congress, Sipunzi said it was unfortunate that the metalworkers union and the federation had to face each other in court.

However, he said he could not come to a concrete conclusion on whether Numsa should be allowed to attend.

"Nevertheless if Numsa appealed to congress, I'm not sure whether my conclusion is right to say indeed the special congress has its own agenda. If that appeal is part of the issues to be discussed there let it be, but if it's not it should go to the scheduled national congress," he said.

Cosatu will be holding it scheduled national congress in November. It has said that Numsa would only be allowed to appeal its expulsion at that congress.

News24.com