The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is disturbed by the tone and thrust of the African National Congress (ANC) response to Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Central Executive Committee (CEC) Statement. The ANC’s response undermines the long held set of protocols in the Alliance for purposes of engagement, including the fact of not questioning each others bona fides and grandstanding.
The conspiratorial questioning of Cosatu’s intentions is completely unacceptable and unwarranted.We call on the ANC to uphold the protocols of engagement within our Alliance as contained in the previous Ekurhuleni Summits. On managing intra-alliance relations the Ekurhuleni Summit Declaration of April 7, 2002 stated, inter alia;
• “Our organizations, though profoundly independent, are separate organizational formations with their own identities, policy-making mechanisms and internal organizational arrangements. In this regard, each component’s respects the independence of its allies”.
• “Having examined the causes and the impact of the recent (2000-2002) intense public discord among some components of the Alliance, the Summit concluded that this was an unfortunate development which we must not allow to recur…Where there are areas of difference, we are committed to resolving them through ongoing constructive debate”.
As Numsa we fully support the articulations given by our Federation’s (Cosatu) General Secretary Cde Zwelinzima Vavi at a post CEC Press Briefing, and generally all his public utterances. Nothing that our Federation’s General Secretary Cde Vavi, including at the said Press Briefing, is by any stretch of imagination at variance with the analysis and resolutions of the CEC.
We call on the Alliance Secretariat to convene an urgent meeting to deal with the issues emanating from the Cosatu CEC for the purposes of soliciting a shared understanding and programme.
Contact: Castro NgobeseNational Union of Metalworkers of South Africa National Spokesperson – 073 299 1595
Source
Numsa Press Release