{"id":232205,"date":"2022-07-23T22:16:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T20:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/court-halts-numsa-congress\/"},"modified":"2022-07-23T22:16:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T20:16:07","slug":"court-halts-numsa-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/court-halts-numsa-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Court halts NUMSA congress"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The national congress of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), set to begin on Monday, has been interdicted and restrained from going ahead, until the union complies with its constitution. NUMSA\u2019s national office bearers are elected at their national congress, which was last held in 2016.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Judge Graham Moshoana in the Johannesburg Labour Court ruled that decisions of the union\u2019s central committee to suspend a slew of members, including the union\u2019s second deputy president Ruth Ntlokose, and to place the Mpumalanga Regional Council, NUMSA\u2019s largest region, under \u2018administration\u2019 were \u201cunconstitutional, invalid and unenforceable in law.\u201d<\/p>\n

On 18 July 2022, Ntlokose launched an urgent application in the Labour Court, seeking to have her suspension and those of other members overturned, and to interdict the national congress until the union complies with its constitution.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, GroundUp broke a series of stories<\/a> about NUMSA\u2019s leadership and its investment arm, in particular its funeral insurance scheme 3Sixty Life. We revealed reports that suggested improper dealings, including that 3Sixty Life paid for NUMSA general secretary Irvin Jim\u2019s birthday party<\/a>. AmaBhungane also published<\/a> a detailed report on possible malfeasance at the union.<\/p>\n

A number of union leaders voiced their concerns following these reports. In the ensuing months Irvin Jim and the central committee subsequently suspended over 25 union leaders including shop stewards, office bearers and officials. The suspensions have been perceived as an attempt to squash criticism of Jim.<\/p>\n

The suspensions included Vuyo Lufele, regional secretary of the Western Cape; Andile Bloko, the Eastern Cape region\u2019s Regional Deputy Chairperson, and Mziyanda Twani, its Regional Secretary; and Xolisa Posiso, the Mpumalanga Regional Council\u2019s Regional Chairperson.<\/p>\n

Then in the past week, 30 further suspensions were handed down by the central committee.<\/p>\n

The entire Mpumalanga Region was placed under administration by the central committee. This is the union\u2019s largest region, and placing it under administration disabled the region from participating in the national elective congress.<\/p>\n

On 14 July 2022, the central committee announced the suspension of Ruth Ntlokose, NUMSA\u2019s second deputy president and the newly-elected President of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU). This decision was apparently due to Ntlokose\u2019s decision to run for SAFTU\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

Ntlokose however said that she was suspended<\/a> for demanding accountability for the 3Sixty Life debacle.<\/p>\n

Judge Moshoana ruled that the suspensions of Ntlokose and others by the central committee were not within its powers, as defined by the union\u2019s constitution. As such, Ntlokose\u2019s suspension and the suspensions of the other NUMSA members were \u201cunconstitutional and unenforceable in law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge also ruled that the central committee did not have the authority under NUMSA\u2019s constitution to place the Mpumalanga Regional Council under \u2018administration\u2019, which would have ruled out the region\u2019s participation in the national congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can a national congress \u2026 proceed without the views of the biggest region, the MRC (Mpumalanga Regional Council)?\u201d wrote Judge Moshoana.<\/p>\n

The judge found that the participation of delegates in the national congress must be determined by a credentials committee, but none was appointed. Instead the central committee acted as a credentials committee, which Moshoana ruled was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

The court would \u201cbe failing in its duties if it were to allow this glaringly unlawful conduct to continue,\u201d and let the national congress proceed, wrote Moshoana. He interdicted the congress from proceeding until the union complies with its constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe members of NUMSA deserve better and proper protection,\u201d says the judgment. \u201cTo have a leadership or structure that unashamedly flouts the founding document of the constitution is not in the best interest of the general membership.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The national congress of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), set to begin on Monday, has been interdicted and restrained from going ahead, until the union complies with its constitution. NUMSA\u2019s national office bearers are elected at their national congress, which was last held in 2016. On Saturday, Judge Graham Moshoana in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":232206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-232205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/court-halts-numsa-congress.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}