Post-NUM National Executive Committee meeting statement
29 June 2020
The National Executive Committee of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) met from 24th-26th of June 2020 at the NUM's College Elijah Barayi Memorial Training Center (EBMTC). The NEC deliberated and resolved on the following aspects of national and organizational importance.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
As this was the first NEC meeting since the State President announced a lockdown in March. The NEC, therefore, had to assess the impact of the virus in the industries or sectors we organize in, the country as a whole and globally. In the beginning, there were no reported incidences of COVID-19 infection in the mining and construction industries. However, in Eskom, which is the energy sector we organize, there were a few reported cases. We believe that the closure of mining and construction contributed a lot in keeping the numbers of infected employees low or non-existent.
Increasing the workforce in mining by 50% resulted in a spike in the number of cases in the industry so has an increase to 100%. More testing revealed more positive cases. It is a pity that the mining companies are claiming that the government has instructed them to stop testing asymptomatic employees and also stop sharing information with NUM on COVID-19 statistics. Only Donald Trump can do this. If indeed it is true, the NEC vowed to take the government to task. We demand wholesale testing and we also reserve our right to invoke Section 23 of the Mine Health and Safety Act which allows employees to leave the dangerous working place. Compared to other industries, the mining industry is fast becoming the epicenter of COVID-19.