RE: SACP RESPONDS TO THE NUMSA TIRADE AGAINST ANC
The SACP has learned with shock and dismay the litany of diatribe attributed to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) leadership rubbishing the ANC's "Good Story to Tell" electioneering catchphrase.
NUMSA President Andrew Chirwa reportedly said "the workers of this country have no good story to tell" citing the Marikana incident and called the ANC the "supervisor of white monopoly capital".
He was reportedly addressing shop-stewards at the union's national bargaining conference in Pretoria yesterday.
The SACP Provincial Secretary in the Moses Mabhida Province (KZN) said the recent statements by NUMSA President have exposed the renegade affiliate of COSATU that it was nothing but AN agent of right wing forces who are determined to destabilise the ANC and its alliance for factional reasons.
"It is shocking that a trade union which until very recently has been singing the praises of the African National Congress and its track record in terms of empowerment of workers and social transformation in this country has suddenly transformed into a potent right wing faction hell bent on destabilising the very ANC that has done so much for the workers of this country" said SACP Provincial Secretary Themba Mtehmbu.
He said workers of this country should not forget that it was the ANC that led the liberation of this country and immediately began promulgating one of the most progressive pieces of legislation that have restored workers basic rights such as the right to strike and minimum wages.
Mthembu said to trivialise Marikana incident and try to score cheap political points using the tragedy in which so many people lost their lives and families lost breadwinners goes to show the insensitivity of the NUMSA leadership and the contempt with which it treats the workers struggles.
As President Zuma said this morning when he delivered his Presidential 20 Year Review:
"Workers have 20 years of enjoying rights including trade union workplace organising, collective bargaining, equal pay for equal work, health and safety, affirmative action, skills development, minimum wages for workers in vulnerable sectors, the right to strike, and the right to peaceful protest."
If this is not a good story to tell for the workers of this country for the past twenty years then maybe NUMSA will tell us that their good story is sucking up into the egos of certain individuals who are desperately trying to cling-on to power to continue to abusing vulnerable workers such as young women.
Statement issued by Themba Mthembu, SACP Moses Mabhida (KZN) Provincial Secretary, March 11 2014
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