NUM is digging itself into a dark hole
Factional battles have replaced militancy on behalf of miners
THE National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is an organisation stuck in a dark abyss.
And it seems to have lost the capacity to find its way out, digging itself deeper and deeper into the hellish scenario in which it has already lost more than 132 000 members in the past five years.
The union that boasted a membership of 300 000 in 2012, now at 176 000, is in trouble and it seems there is no hope in sight, with rhetoric being used to paper over the cracks, in place of the honest introspection needed to help it move forward.
An admission that the union has failed to service its members adequately came easily in 2012, for then the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union had the numbers to show the extent of NUM defections.
However, the conversation about disunity and its causes is being sidestepped by its leaders, despite cracks showing all around them.
On Thursday and Friday this week the NUM held its central committee meeting, bringing together 700 regional leaders and shop stewards, who are the first point of contact for union members on the ground.
As the cold front set in over Gauteng on Thursday, those at the St Georges Hotel in Irene found warmth in complimentary jackets, courtesy of the NUM’s financial muscle.
The union has built an investment firm worth billions of rand which sometimes serves as its donor at major events.
However, it is this positive that has the union now teetering on the edge of disaster, as the pursuit of positions and the financial perks that come with them — which are capable of transforming the lives of for example rock-drillers — are causing division.
NUM president Piet Matosa said in his opening address no capable organisation performed positively if it was unable to unite itself. But just hours after his speech, Matosa found himself breaking up a scuffle between members of a delegation from Matlosana region in North West.
They screamed in each other’s faces, pointed fingers angrily, shoved each other and stopped at throwing fists only when the national leadership intervened.
The scene played itself out on the doorstep of the hall where the central committee was meeting, in full view of guests and the media.
It is understood the region wants a change of leadership and has accused the union’s mostly Xhosa leaders of tribalism and of ill-treating their subordinates. But the incident embodies a struggle far beyond a single region.
The NUM has lost its militancy on the shop floor and has redirected it internally into the union where factional battles ahead of elective conferences define who gets purged and which voice is the loudest years after the congress.
This feature resembles current national politics, where similar trends are observed in the ANC, as political analyst Mcebisi Ndletyana explains. “You do have the remnants and after-effects of Polokwane and divisions that came out of Polokwane are still felt today.
“You do have people who are still seen and marginalised because at some point they were associated with [former president Thabo] Mbeki.”
An update on the union’s 2016 action plan says the NUM has failed to “eradicate tribalism, factionalism, cliques, gossip and rumour-mongering”.
The mining, construction and energy sectors, in which the NUM organises, are in turmoil due to continued economic pressures as the country’s growth and investment outlook remains poor.
Retrenchments in the mining industry are looming, with Matosa himself saying “even harder times are coming”, requiring a different NUM.
The union’s struggle to bridge the divide created when current DAYS OF ACTION: The NUM under Cyril Ramaphosa and other leaders in the 1980s and 1990s improved working conditions on mines general secretary David Sipunzi and supporters took on former general secretary Frans Baleni and won has led to an organisation characterised by mistrust and paranoia.
The security checks and verifications conducted this week before attendees were allowed into the meeting hall spoke volumes. An electronic system was used to capture the identity and image of each delegate, who would be further vetted at the door — procedures befitting a presidential event.
The union that was instrumental in improving working conditions on the mines in the 1980s — when Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa led the organisation — and the 1990s, has lost its focus.
The NUM under the former leadership of Gwede Mantashe, Kgalema Motlanthe and others oversaw and championed the realisation of the Leon Commission of Inquiry into Safety and Health in the Mining Industry in 1995 — a momentous achievement for mineworkers, who had for years been dying of illnesses associated with their occupation or had been killed in avoidable accidents underground.
The findings of that commission led to essential changes to health and safety conditions underground.
Recently, however, the union has been unable to push back against mass retrenchments.
The union will be celebrating 35 years of existence in December, a considerable number of years for an organisation that faced upheavals that threatened its existence under the apartheid government.
The difference is the NUM is now its own enemy, as Sipunzi said in his secretariat report to the central committee.
“The NUM has to go back and do what it should have been doing all the while and that is servicing its members. The yellow union [Amcu] has managed to grow so fast because of the NUM’s failures.
“Workers complain on a daily basis to regional leadership about poor service,” he said.
Matosa said the union risked irrelevance in some bargaining structures where it had failed to meet threshold requirements for membership to be recognised as a union.
He pleaded with the delegates to embark on mass recruitment campaigns to attract workers back to the NUM.
That might be mission impossible if what Sipunzi said about unity in the organisation is anything to go by.
It is understood that Matosa and Sipunzi have struggled to make peace since the 2015 congress, a difference observed in the manner in which they approach the subject of unity in the organisation.
It is these contradictions that demonstrate the NUM’s lacklustre commitment to uniting the union.
While Matosa’s approach points to tribalism as being at the root of disunity, Sipunzi is worried about a different source of discontent.
“Resignation from the union indicates a voluntary act driven by dissatisfaction with service. Regions should stop purging members who differ on organisational direction and call them ‘the enemy within’,” said Sipunzi in his report.
“Critical, constructive and honest debates build the union. At the same time, we cannot tolerate a culture of ‘always differ’ when one party has lost debates, as much as we cannot pander to the individual’s whims.”
Both agree, though, that the differences are costing the NUM members, while retrenchments also mean the union is losing numbers in droves, leading to its possible irrelevance in more bargaining councils.
However, more challenges were added when the format of the conversation at the central committee was dictated by a set of rules which included timed contributions by members on the floor.
“A delegate may not speak more than once on the same matter; critique ideas, not people; build on one another’s comments, work towards shared understanding,” read the list of rules.
The rules made it hard for the meeting to be used to get to the bottom of the divisions that have torn the union apart, leaving little chance for the NUM to conduct the necessary introspection required to achieve its goals for the next two years, which include growing its membership to 220 000.
The pursuit of positions and financial perks is causing division Workers complain on a daily basis about poor service Regions should stop purging members who differ over direction
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