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Press Statement, 25 June 2019

NUM-YS POST MEDIA STATEMENT

The National Union of Mineworkers Youth Structure (NUM-YS) held its mid-term national committee meeting on the 20th-21st of June 2019 at the Elijah Baraji Memorial Training Centre in Midrand.

Amongst the matters that were discussed, it was the work in progress so far and planning for all NUM Youth Structure Regional Conferences and later the National Youth Conference that will take place in November 2019 in Free State.

The meeting deliberated on several issues that affect the union and politics in the country. The meeting resolved on the following issues:

Performance of the structure

The national committee is pleased with the work of the structure since the election of the current leadership in the office and further agreed to put all energies together in planning for the upcoming regional youth conferences.

2019 National Elections

The national committee has welcomed the recent result of the general elections held in May 2019 whereby the African National Congress (ANC) has seen a decline of 5% of its electorate since 2009. The structure has further observed that people again gave the ANC another opportunity to govern and better their lives for good. We want to caution the ANC not to take this chance for granted but learn from the mistakes of the past and work towards delivering services to the people.

Retrenchments

The meeting expressed its anger on the high number of retrenchments happening in the country. We believe that all these retrenchments across all sectors are part of a plan in undermining the efforts of rebuilding the economy of this country. The NUM-YS will be working together with all progressive youth alliances in organizing shutdown protest march to Mineral Council of South Africa and the Department of Labour.

ESKOM

The NUM-YS will further pursue engagement with our mother body (NUM) to revive all plans that were in place regarding the planned protest march to ANC Luthuli House in fighting against unbundling and privatization of Eskom by the government. As the structure, we will fight every element or idea of retrenchment of any employee of Eskom...”One employee retrenched is equal to load shedding”.

ANCYL

The NUMYS calls upon the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) not to allow the African National Youth League (ANCYL) to die under their watch but put together mechanisms in place in assisting the struggling league to go for their national elective conference so that young people of this country can elect young men and women who can take up the struggles of young people. Disbandment of the ANCYL is tantamount to killing the future of this country.

SONA

The NUMYS is extremely disappointed on President Cyril Ramaphosa recent state of the nation address last week Thursday as the president did nothing but to share his dream that will take centuries to be real. Young people are facing serious challenges on the ground on a daily basis i.e. unemployment, poverty, inequality and other critical issues. We call on the president to overcome his dream and come back to the reality and address issues affecting young people in this country.

For more information, please contact:

Bonginkosi Mrasi: NUM Youth Structure National Secretary: 064 758 0661/078 188 4300

Address:

7 Rissik Street.

Cnr Frederick,

Johannesburg 2001

Tel: 011 377 2111

Web: www.num.org.za

Twitter: @Num Media

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NUM/100860023402167