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Press Statement, 13 December 2019

 

OPEN LETTER TO DR PETER BAKER

 

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is highly taken aback by your open letter that was published in the edition of Business Day, 11 December 2019 under the heading “NUM chief’s rant was racist”, referring to the unfortunate fatal incident that took place at Tau Lekoa Gold Mine in Orkney, Matlosana, where four of our members lost their lives, and one got seriously injured.

 

It seems Dr Peter Baker you are highly interested in defending the white supremacy because you are also an angry white person. It is 2019 and it seems you still have that energy to can defend the untransformed proto team at Tau Lekoa Gold Mine.

 

What justification do you want the NUM President Joseph Montisetse to provide you with in particular; you don’t deny that the proto team is lilly-white, why?

 

You are highly ill informed about the NUM position on Eskom. We are one of the unions that are against the dysfunctional situation at Eskom hence we resolved to march to the ANC Headquarters about the Eskom issues.

 

In your unfounded accusations about the NUM President statement, you stated that “the current disastrous state of affairs at Eskom is wholly due to the fact that the corporation is run from top to bottom by blacks”?

 

We should of course remind you that there are white senior managers at Eskom with the COO being Jan Obelhozer (white), CFO being Calib Cassim (colored), the Generation Executive director being Andrew Ertzinger and the CEO being Andre de Ruyter is a white.

 

It is interesting to read that indeed you are a well-known Veterinary, a doctor for animals, but as the union, your integrity as a doctor is very questionable, particularly the fact that at some point the Sandton Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development visited you outlining the poor conditions under which you were keeping your vervet monkey and tortoises at your clinic.

 

You are undoubtedly an animal abuser and we should warn you that you don’t have an integrity to question what the NUM, as a trade union that represents a population of poor workers in the mining, construction and energy sectors, should do or say to the brutal capitalists. As the NUM, we stand by President Joseph Montisetse’ statement and we demand from you a public apology.

 

For more information, please contact:

 

Makgabo William Mabapa: NUM Deputy General Secretary:

Wma...@num.org.za 082 880 4439