Sowetan reports that several employees of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have accused their bosses of purging them for not supporting the union’s current leaders at the previous conference.  

In July, some 10 employees received letters from NUM’s general secretary David Sipunzi informing them that they were being moved to other regions “for the benefit of the organisation”.  In the letter, Sipunzi informed the workers, who are mostly line managers in the NUM regions, that the transfer “will not have any effect” on their salaries, and it was effective from 3 September.  But the workers are fuming as they say they are being purged because they supported Piet Matosa, who lost the president’s position to his former deputy, Joseph Montisetse, at the NUM conference held in June.  One of the workers has since resigned.  “We just received letters without any consultation.  We received the letters on July 26 and then lodged a grievance.  We escalated the matter to the national committee.  Before we even got response from the committee, we were locked out of our offices,” said one worker.  But Sipunzi rejected the allegations by the workers and said he was not aware of any employee who had supported a particular leader during the conference.  The workers have taken the NUM to the CCMA and the matter will be heard this week.

• Read more of this Sowetan report by Penwell Dlamini at SA Labour News

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