Amy Musgrave
13 October 2008
Johannesburg — NATIONAL Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) general secretary Silumko Nondwangu will fight the battle of his life this week to get re-elected to the leadership of the union.
Numsa, which is the Congress of South African Trade Unions' (Cosatu's) third-largest affiliate, starts its four-day national congress in Vanderbijlpark today with a contest for both the positions of president and general secretary .
Not only has Nondwangu fallen out of favour with Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, he is also facing disciplinary action by the powerful union federation. He was charged with misconduct after being accused of defying a Cosatu resolution to back African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma ahead of the ruling party's elective conference last year. Nondwangu's name appeared on a rival election list that endorsed former president Thabo Mbeki as the preferred leader of the party.
Cosatu alleges that Nondwangu failed to comply with its position and decisions, concealed from the federation his nomination as an ANC national executive committee member on Mbeki's list, and caused organisational disunity by participating in the nomination process although he knew it would provoke divisions and cause confusion in the federation.
Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini said last week that his deputy, Violet Seboni, was handling the disciplinary action.
He said the leadership of Numsa had asked Cosatu's special central executive committee last month for a meeting in an attempt to resolve the matter. The plan was for Nondwangu to apologise at that meeting.
"We are still waiting to hear from Numsa about the meeting to formally state the apology. The committee is not in the mode of paging the general secretary of Numsa," he said.
Dlamini said an apology did not mean that the disciplinary action would go away.
If Cosatu finds Nondwangu guilty, it does not mean he will lose his position in Numsa. It will be up to the union to decide on what action, if any, to take.
Insiders in the tripartite alliance have described this week's leadership battle as "tough" and have said they would not be willing to place bets. Unlike Willie Madisha, who the South African Democratic Teachers' Union did not have much difficulty booting out, Nondwangu has big support in his union, with several regions having issued public statements in his support.
Eastern Cape secretary Irvin Jim will challenge Nondwangu for the position.
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