Reuters reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has voiced its opposition to the government selling a stake in struggling state-owned arms manufacturer Denel.
The union also said on Wednesday that it would fight attempts to force through salary cuts. Denel is battling to stay afloat after reporting a R1.7bn loss. President Cyril Ramaphosa said last week that it was “ripe” for joint venture partnerships after Saudi Arabia offered to take a stake in the firm. Numsa’s Jerry Morulane reacted: “When you bring in an equity partner, there is always a likelihood that there will be jobs lost, so we, as Numsa, are opposed to any form of privatisation. We also reject salary cuts for ordinary workers at Denel. They should find other ways to guarantee the future of the company.” Numsa and trade union Solidarity account for roughly half of Denel’s workforce of 4,000 people. Earlier this week Solidarity rejected a proposal to cut Denel salaries by around 20% from the end of November, but said it thought selling an equity stake was the only way to save the company.
- Read the original of this report by Alexander Winning at BusinessLive
- Read too, Saudi Arabia makes $1bn bid for partnership with South African defence group Denel, at Engineering News
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