Numsa scores as internal squabbles divide NUM

More than 1 000 National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members in Klerksdorp have defected to the rival metalworkers’ union, Numsa, because of factional battles — which could cost the NUM its position as the majority union in the area.

The NUM represents 59% of all mineworkers in the gold sector, but only 55% of workers in its Matlosana region in the North West Province.

Workers at the Vaal Reefs and AngloGold Ashanti mines in Stilfontein and Klerksdorp left the NUM after accusing the Matlosana regional leaders of tribalism because members were excluded from an upcoming regional conference.

They said isiXhosa-speaking people were being parachuted in to head the NUM’s offices.

“Members decided to leave the NUM for the sake of peace and to avoid being labelled as foreigners who are using a passport,” a worker at the AngloGold Ashanti mine said. “NUM is dead, and its president and national office bearers have killed it.”

This week, NUM general secretary David Sipunzi said the numbers and the reasons workers were leaving had been played down at the union’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting over the weekend.

“The Matlosana region did make a presentation to the NEC. But the manner in which [regional secretary Khaya Ngeleka] put it, he was pouring cold water on to that [claim of a mass exodus].”

Sipunzi said Ngeleka told the NEC that members had appealed their exclusion from the regional conference. They “are now recruiting members to Numsa. And the number that has left is in excess of a thousand,” Sipunzi said on Tuesday.

The incumbent regional officials are known to back NUM president Piet Matosa, who is involved in a bitter factional battle with Sipunzi.

Matosa has urged NUM members to fight back against their rival union on the platinum belt, the Association of Metal and Construction Workers’ Union (Amcu). Sipunzi was unsuccessful in his charge to have Numsa readmitted to trade union federation Cosatu and has suggested that the NUM become allied with Amcu.

Whoever wins the factional battle could take control of the NUM at its national conference next year, and there are plans afoot to oust Sipunzi.

“The NUM youth structures [in that area] are being locked out of regional conferences because they do not support [Matosa],” said a senior NEC member who backs Sipunzi.

Sipunzi said he could sympathise with members who defected. “These members should have given the union the opportunity to cleanse itself. … Unfortunately it might be that they are not given the opportunity to attend the regional conference and make their own choice.”

The NUM general secretary has now called for the union to conduct a fact-finding mission and visit the area to arrest membership losses.

Numsa, an affiliate of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), has made inroads at mines where the NUM was once dominant, said Numsa’s spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi.

“It is true that, as Numsa, we are aggressively recruiting in the mining sector. We are right now the majority at Glencore. When members come to us and want to join, we don’t ask whether you were NUM or Amcu; we just service them,” Hlubi said.

Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was delighted by the number of workers joining Numsa.

“In no time, there will be no NUM left because of their own doing … The NUM is sucked into the corruption and, because of that, it is now using tribalism to divide workers. There is a Xhosa gang there that is mercilessly dealing with people who don’t speak isiXhosa,” Vavi said.

But Matosa denied allegations of tribalism and claims that isiXhosaspeakers were being favoured, saying officials had been properly elected.

Ngeleka would not respond to the allegations, but confirmed that the exodus of NUM members would be discussed this week.