LEADERSHIP WOES
NATASHA MARRIAN: How conspiracy and conflict stalk Numsa
‘Numsa faces allegations it has been ‘captured’ by a US contractor running a company called ThoughtWorks’
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has lost the plot. Its challenges are deepened by ideological confusion, a rift among its leaders since before its 2016 national congress, and money woes.
Numsa was the biggest and among the wealthiest unions in the country, but the combination of problems it now faces is leading it down a path of self-destruction.
The 2013 resolution by Numsa, then a Cosatu affiliate, to stop campaigning for the ANC, call on Cosatu to split from the alliance and form a worker party to contest future elections marked the beginning of an important point in our political history. It formed part of the long unravelling of the labour movement as well as the governing alliance, whose future hangs in the balance, depending on the outcome of the ANC’s national conference in December. The "Numsa moment" was for many an opportunity to form a genuine left alternative to compete against the ANC. But that opportunity was lost by the union leadership.Now Numsa faces allegations it has been "captured" by a US contractor running a company called ThoughtWorks. The union has suspended the equivalent of its chief operations officer for her alleged role in penning an open letter containing the allegations and challenging the Numsa leadership. The letter is bizarre, alleging that those running ThoughtWorks set up a media organisa...
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