IPPs deal back to haunt ANC as union meets

The government’s signing of the independent power producers (IPPs) agreement earlier in 2018 will come back to haunt it.

Members of the National Union of Mineworkers on Tuesday said their congress, which kicks off on Wednesday, will decide on how to “punish” the ANC for what it calls “antiworker” policies.

The union has suggested it would review its support for the ANC’s elections if the government did not scrap the IPP programme. The government contends the IPPs will help create 60,000 jobs, while the unions argue they would lead to the loss of 40,000 coal miners and other contract jobs.

The NUM has been shedding members in the mining sector since 2012, mostly as a result of its internal weaknesses and mass retrenchments.

The union’s elective national congress will also serve as a platform for the discussion of a South African Communist Party resolution to explore contesting elections on its own. The subject has caused fierce debate within union federation Cosatu, with some of its members supporting a motion that the SACP should break away from the ANC.

Sources told Business Day the union could not guarantee that President Cyril Ramaphosa would not be booed when he addressed the gathering on Thursday. The unionists said he was responsible for the speedy phasing in of the new IPPs, without consulting unions.

The NUM’s factional battles, which have torn the union apart in the past, could resurface, with almost all leadership positions being contested.

General secretary David Sipunzi will be up against Carletonville regional secretary Mbuyiseli Hibana, while longstanding president Piet Matosa is being challenged by his deputy, Joseph Montisetse.