GroundUp reports that scores of National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) delegates from across SA waited patiently outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Monday morning.
They were unsure what to do, after their elective national congress, set to begin on Monday, was prevented from going ahead by Judge Graham Moshoana in the Johannesburg Labour Court on Saturday. Meanwhile, Numsa’s leadership will be convening a special central committee meeting on Tuesday to determine the path ahead and decide whether the congress would proceed in defiance of the interdict. But, delegates claimed that the leadership had not communicated to them what would happen after the interdict was handed down on Saturday. “We don’t know what we are going to do here. The national leadership didn’t provide delegates with guidance after the conference had been interdicted,” claimed one delegate. At about 12:30pm, delegates were called into the convention centre to be addressed by national office bearers. Numsa president Andrew Chirwa apparently railed against the Labour Court judgment and Judge Moshoana. Many delegates continued to wait outside even while others conferred inside the conference centre. One delegate said he was worried about the money Numsa had used to send delegates from across the country to an interdicted conference. “Numsa has wasted workers’ money on transporting delegates from other provinces to a conference that has been interdicted,” complained the delegate. By 4pm, despite numerous attempts to reach Numsa’s spokesperson, it could not be established whether the conference was going to to proceed.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Vincent Lali at GroundUp
- Read too, Chaos looms as Numsa delegates arrive for interdicted congress, at Fin24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page