South African Federation of Trade Unions

2023 - 3 - 8

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Image courtesy of "GroundUp"

Irvin Jim moves to push Zwelinzima Vavi out of SAFTU (GroundUp)

Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), South Africa's biggest trade union, has given Zwelinzima Vavi ...

Please [support](/donate/) us by contributing to our legal costs and helping us to publish news that matters. [Irvin Jim’s birthday party](https://www.groundup.org.za/article/irvin-jims-r40k-birthday-paid-for-by-embattled-life-insurer/) had been paid for by 3Sixty Life, an insurer owned by NUMSA and servicing its members. Please include a link back to the original article. [South Africa](/region/South%20Africa) We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. [Labour unions](/topic/labour-unions/) [Politics](/topic/politics/)

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Image courtesy of "Mail and Guardian"

The seeds of the 1973 Durban strikes still grow (Mail and Guardian)

Several unions were formed in the wake of the seminal strikes 50 years ago, including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.

Those unions were the Motor Industry Combined Workers Union, the National Automobile and Allied Workers Union and the United Metal, Mining and Allied Workers of South Africa. It also remains a revolutionary socialist union committed to building unity among the progressive organisations of the working class, as well as Pan-African and international solidarity. It remains committed to fighting hard on the shop floor and has been joined by more and more workers from outside of the union’s historical base among metal workers. In South Africa it worked closely with the National Union of Motor Assembly and Rubber Workers of South Africa and the United Automobile, Rubber and Allied Workers Union. Two Cosatu unions also dissolved into Numsa, namely the General and Allied Workers Union and the Transport and General Workers Union. Numsa offered critical solidarity with the national liberation movement but took clear positions against the shift to neoliberal policies, beginning with the adoption in 1996 of the self-imposed structural adjustment programme known as the Growth, Employment, and Redistribution plan. There were more strikes in 1985, including stoppages to demand the release of Moses Mayekiso, who had been elected as a Mawu shop steward in 1979 and was arrested in late 1984. When the workers called for a boycott of all white-owned stores in Natal (as the province was then called), they came under intense pressure from Inkatha. On May Day in1986 Inkatha launched its own union, the United Workers’ Union of South Africa, carrying a coffin symbolising the death of Cosatu. Mawu got access to the Dunlop factory in Durban in 1983. At the time it was illegal for black workers to belong to a registered trade union, so black workers joined the benefit fund as a cover for trade union activities. After the Durban strikes thousands of workers joined the benefit fund.

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Image courtesy of "Daily Maverick"

Irvin Jim moves to push Zwelinzima Vavi out of Saftu over 'attacks ... (Daily Maverick)

Vavi has brought Numsa 'into disrepute', according to a letter from Jim, who also hints at disciplinary action.

[Irvin Jim’s birthday party](https://www.groundup.org.za/article/irvin-jims-r40k-birthday-paid-for-by-embattled-life-insurer/) had been paid for by 3Sixty Life, an insurer owned by Numsa and servicing its members. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury. …but we are not going to force you to. [Numsa’s turbulent elective conference](https://www.groundup.org.za/article/numsas-interdicted-national-congress-to-proceed-but-a-court-challenge-looms/), Vavi attacked “Numsa and/or its national leadership stating, or alternatively implying, that there is a corrupt relationship between Numsa’s national leadership or persons within the national leadership and Numsa’s Investment Company”. The letter says the Saftu constitution stipulates that a Saftu office bearer can be recalled by the affiliate which provided the office bearer “if the member violates the constitution of the affiliate, or brings it into disrepute, or if the affiliate considers that the person failed to represent the best interests of the union’s members and the working class in general”. Register for free or log in to read this article. [letter](https://www.groundup.org.za/media/uploads/documents/letter_from_numsa_gs_to_zwelinzima_vavi_28_february_2023.pdf) from Jim, Vavi was elected Saftu general secretary as an official of Numsa, and following a meeting of the Numsa national executive committee, the union has decided that Vavi’s conduct “does not serve the best interests of Numsa’s members and the working class in general”. Thank You for creating a free account Irvin Jim, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), the country’s biggest trade union, has given Zwelinzima Vavi notice that Numsa intends to recall him from his role as general secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), the union federation in which Numsa is the majority member. Create a password to finish up registering with us: This article is free to read. Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.

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