Workers claim they are purged by NUM
Union says redeployment done to improve efficiency
Several employees of the National Union of Mineworkers have accused their bosses of purging them for not supporting the union’s current leaders at the previous conference.
In July, a total of 10 employees received letters from NUM’s general secretary, David Sipunzi, informing them that they were being moved to other regions “for the benefit of the organisation”.
In the letter, Sipunzi informed the workers, who are mostly line managers in NUM regions, that the transfer “will not have any effect” on their salaries, and it was effective from September 3.
But the workers are fuming as they say they are being purged because they supported Piet Matosa, who lost the position of president to his former deputy, Joseph Montisetse, at the NUM conference held in June.
One of the workers who received the letter has since resigned from NUM.
Workers who have been moved said this would have a negative impact on their families. Some workers were moved from Limpopo to Northern Cape, KwaZulu Natal to Western Cape, Gauteng to Eastern Cape, Cape Town to Limpopo and Rustenburg to Mpumalanga.
“We just received letters without any consultation. We receive the letters on July 26 and then lodged a grievance. We escalated the matter to the national committee. Before we even got response from the committee, we were locked out of our offices,” said one worker.
She said that she spent the rest of the month at home and was not paid for the month of September. The workers told Sowetan the union has terminated their petrol allowances.
Sipunzi rejected the allegations by the workers.
“I am not aware of any employees of the union who supported a particular leader during the conference,” he said.
Sipunzi said employees have no role to play on who gets elected.
“In this instance, after assessing our performance in the previous three years, we decided that maybe we can change the way we do things. We can improve in terms of growing our membership base. There is no demotion in that.”
The workers have taken NUM to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and the matter will be heard this week.