The National Union Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has decided, after holding a special central committee (SCC) meeting on July 11 and 12, to suspend its second deputy president Ruth Ntlokotse, days before it plans to hold its eleventh national congress in Cape Town.
The national congress, where Numsa plans to elect new leadership, is due to take place from July 25 to 29.
Numsa secretary general Irvin Jim says Ntlokotse – who is also South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) president – is facing suspension because Numsa’s SCC “felt that [her] conduct . . . undermined the organisation and its unity.”
“[Ntlokotse] has defined [herself] outside the collective leadership of the national office bearers. As such, the SCC took a decision to place [Ruth] under suspension, pending a fair disciplinary process of the organisation,” says Jim.
He adds that Numsa “is not in a position to discuss the details of the matter, until the matter is internally handled through Numsa disciplinary processes”.
In addition, Jim says the Numsa SCC decided that those who disrupted a recent Saftu national congress should not be allowed to attend the upcoming Numsa national congress. He also noted that these resolutions were debated and adopted by the majority of Numsa regions.
Numsa used the SCC to deal with final preparations for its national congress, including preparing the congress documents, the budget, the logistics and policy discussion documents.
As part of this preparation, Numsa sought to open nominations for its national leadership on July 13.
Nominations will close on July 22, following which the election process will be handled by an independent body – the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa.
In the run-up to the national congress, Numsa has also been working on relaunching its nine regions – a process that has been concluded, with two-thirds majority voting in favour.
As such, eight out of the nine Numsa regions successfully held regional congresses and elected new leadership, the most recent being the Ekurhuleni region. “Ekurhuleni successfully held a congress after the first one collapsed,” he says.
However, he says the Mpumalanga region was unsuccessful in relaunching itself, and will not attend the national congress as a result.
The SCC also covered the Saftu national congress and events that transpired there. “We reflected on the embarrassing and unfortunate situation that the organisation found itself in, as a result of delinquent behaviour of a faction within the union,” says Jim.
He says some members carried out acts of misconduct by completely disregarding and undermining the position of the union. “The issues related to the faction calling itself Numsa Two, [which] was also dealt with by the [Numsa] SCC.”
Jim says the “same rogue elements” in Saftu have made “wild allegations” against Numsa and its leadership, including that Numsa leadership is stealing money, is part of the radical economic transformation of the African National Congress, that Numsa leadership does not represent the interests of its members, that Jim is corrupt and that Numsa leadership is presiding over an undemocratic dictatorship.
He adds that the rogue elements have also claimed Numsa is returning to the Congress of South African Trade Unions. “All these outrageous and outlandish allegations are rejected with contempt.”
Jim says the rogue elements have also created a Facebook page to attack Numsa leadership. “They are using the platform to defend leaders who have been suspended for misconduct. It is unheard of in the history of the union, that those implicated in misconduct, launch a media campaign in order to gain sympathy for delinquent behaviour.”