Numsa regional leaders who ‘suspended’ national officials ‘suspended’

An emergency meeting of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has resolved to suspend regional leaders who held a central committee meeting and suspended the national office bearers, replacing them with a task team.

In a media briefing in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said this was an act of gross misconduct by the regional leaders that posed serious reputational damage to Numsa as a leading union in the country.

This after regional leaders from the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, JC Bez, Mpumalanga and Sedibeng defied Jim and convened a central committee meeting last week, despite Jim having written to them that the meeting scheduled for October 23-25 had been cancelled until further notice.

Jim’s letter followed a ruling by labour court judge Edwin Tlhotlhalemaje on Thursday last week preventing Numsa and the office bearers from barring delegates from Mpumalanga from attending, participating and voting at committee meetings.

At the central committee meeting at the weekend, the regional leaders, including Andile Bloko, Nkosinathi Makhanya and Andile Nqilingwane, among others, resolved to strip the national office bearers (NOBs) of their delegated powers and functions.

On Wednesday, Jim criticised the regional leaders and staff members, including Mncedisi Kwababa, Mziyanda Twani, Mzamo Khoza and Collen Mahlangu, saying they were “causing havoc” in the union.

He said Numsa national executive committee (NEC) called on the national leadership to act “swiftly and take organisational disciplinary measures” against them, and they would be served with letters of suspension. “Disciplinary measures will be followed through for both those who are staff and those who are office bearers from regions,” Jim said.

“The NEC called on the NOBs to expedite these processes in line with the disciplinary code and constitutional provisions.”

He said the NEC unanimously resolved to reject the “bogus so-called convened central committee and all its decisions and demands against the NOBs and the organisation”.

Jim said the central committee meeting by the regional leaders was “bogus” as those present did not carry “fresh, clear mandates from seven properly functioning regional executive committees”.

He added: “The gathering was bogus because it was convened and conducted as if the union’s elected leadership, constitutional structures and pending disputes did not exist. The NOBs remain the union’s democratically elected leadership unless and until they are removed through a constitutionally empowered process, with due process and a valid mandate at a national congress.”

Speaking to Sowetan’s sister newspaper Business Day, Numsa Mpumalanga regional chair, Makhanya, said: “Their special NEC did not even quorate. Our NEC is sitting on Tuesday, we will deal with whatever they would have announced during their briefing next week. They don’t have any power, we stripped them.”

Numsa president Andrew Chirwa said the national office-bearers were targeted in connection with Khandani Msibi, who has been “fired” as the Numsa Investment Company CEO.

Msibi had been at loggerheads with Jim and had challenged the union to convene its central committee – the highest decision-making body between national congresses − to explain how he came to own a 60% stake in NIC.

Chirwa said the NIC board had resolved to fire Msibi, while Jim said there had been “serious allegations of theft as well as looting of money, shares and assets that belong to workers”.

He said Numsa was confronting a “Khandani Msibi brigade”, which was working with external forces aimed at liquidating the leadership and turning the union into a “plaything of interests that have no record of service to metalworkers”.