Timeslive reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and Transform RSA find themselves with R1.5m debt after an application to stop the signing of the agreement between the minister of energy and 27 independent power producers (IPPs) was dismissed with costs.
At the end of March‚ the Pretoria High Court dismissed the urgent application by the two bodies to halt the signing of the agreements. Numsa and Transform RSA have subsequently asked the court for leave to appeal against the costs portion of the order. In their application‚ they argued that they had raised a substantial constitutional issue and were‚ in good faith‚ attempting to prevent organs of state from conducting themselves in a manner not consistent with the Constitution. The organisations pointed out that they were both non-profit organisations. In a statement on Tuesday‚ Numsa said: “We lost the urgent interdict, but did not lose the case on merit or substantive issues. We lost purely on the failure to meet urgency. We want to inform the public that this is a matter we have mandated our lawyers for them to take this decision on review.” According to Numsa, the signing of the agreements will result in at least 40,000 job losses.
- Read this report by Ernest Mabuza in full at Timeslive
- Read Numsa’s press statement at Numsa News (scroll down)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page