{"id":252133,"date":"2023-03-08T16:53:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T14:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/irvin-jim-moves-to-recall-zwelinzima-vavi-from-saftu\/"},"modified":"2023-03-08T16:53:38","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T14:53:38","slug":"irvin-jim-moves-to-push-zwelinzima-vavi-out-of-saftu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/irvin-jim-moves-to-push-zwelinzima-vavi-out-of-saftu\/","title":{"rendered":"Irvin Jim moves to push Zwelinzima Vavi out of SAFTU"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NUMSA national executive committee says it intends to recall Zwelinzima Vavi from his position as general secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, of which NUMSA is an affiliate. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks<\/p>\n

Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), South Africa\u2019s biggest trade union, has given Zwelinzima Vavi notice that NUMSA intends to recall Vavi from his role as general secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU, the union federation in which NUMSA is the majority member). <\/p>\n

According to a 28 February letter<\/a> from Jim, Vavi was elected SAFTU general secretary as an official of NUMSA, and following a meeting of the NUMSA national executive committee, NUMSA has decided that Vavi\u2019s conduct \u201cdoes not serve the best interests of NUMSA\u2019s members and the working class in general\u201d.<\/p>\n

The letter says the SAFTU constitution stipulates that a SAFTU office-bearer can be recalled by the affiliate which provided the office-bearer \u201cif the member violates the constitution of the affiliate, or brings it into disrepute, or if the affiliate considers that the person failed to represent the best interests of the union\u2019s members and the working class in general\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jim writes that Vavi\u2019s \u201cconduct over a protracted period of time has plainly brought NUMSA as an organisation in disrepute\u201d. Jim then gives examples of the conduct that NUMSA\u2019s NEC considers disreputable, beginning on 18 March 2022.<\/p>\n

On 1 March 2022, GroundUp broke a story that Irvin Jim\u2019s birthday party<\/a> had been paid for by 3Sixty Life, an insurer owned by NUMSA and servicing its members. This was the first of a series of stories<\/a> about the apparent mismanagement of 3Sixty Life and the involvement of NUMSA, its ultimate owner.<\/p>\n

Jim refers to media interviews given by Vavi in which he discussed the growing disagreement between Vavi and Jim, including discussion of NUMSA\u2019s threats to suspend him.<\/p>\n

Jim also claims that during NUMSA\u2019s turbulent elective conference<\/a>, Vavi attacked \u201cNUMSA and\/or its national leadership stating, or alternatively implying, that there is a corrupt relationship between NUMSA\u2019s national leadership or persons within the national leadership and NUMSA\u2019s Investment Company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim lists other instances in which Vavi \u201cattacked\u201d NUMSA, claiming it was captured by \u201cbusiness unionism\u201d, and accused him of \u201crunning a campaign to swell divisions and to liquidate the union\u2019s unity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jim demands that Vavi give written reasons by Thursday 9 March why NUMSA should not recall him from his position at SAFTU, and hints that NUMSA may initiate disciplinary action against Vavi.<\/p>\n

Trevor Shaku, SAFTU spokesperson, said, \u201cWe are not issuing a public response or comment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Groundup asked NUMSA spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a9 2023 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":"

NUMSA national executive committee says it intends to recall Zwelinzima Vavi from his position as general secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, of which NUMSA is an affiliate. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), South Africa\u2019s biggest trade union, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":252134,"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-252133","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\/2023\/03\/irvin-jim-moves-to-push-zwelinzima-vavi-out-of-saftu.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252133","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=252133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}