Post NUM Youth Structure National Committee Statement, 03 October 2016

NUM Press Statement,  03 October 2016

Post NUM Youth Structure National Committee Statement, 03 October 2016

The National Union of Mineworkers Youth Structure (NUM-YS) held its ordinary National Committee Meeting on the 29-30 September 2016 in its College, Elijah Barayi Memorial Training Centre in Midrand. The meeting received organisational and Political reports. The meeting engaged on the recent local government elections and the current political challenges facing the movement received a special attention particularly the issue of free education for the poor. We further reaffirm the decision of our mother body NUM on the issue of Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa being the incoming President of both the ANC and the country come 2017.

On the Succession Plan of the ANC

The NUM-YS reiterates the decision taken by our Central Committee in June 2016 and that of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of NUM, this decision is based on the culture of the African National Congress that says when the incumbent leaves the office the deputy must take over, the NUM has got full confidence on comrade Cyril Ramaphosa the current deputy President that he will take this country forward. We are calling upon all those who are driving factional position that seeks to distort our history to refrain from those tendencies.

We condemn the behaviour of the leagues of the ANC that are forever in the media for wrong reasons.

We call upon the president of the ANC to come out clear and provide direction in these trying times. He should not bury his head in the sand when our country is in shambles.

We have noted with disgust the comments made by uncle Tony Yengeni from Mzoli Detachment on Twitter when he said: “NUM cannot dictate on us, ANC members will decide who must lead them and not the NUM, shaking my big head”. Uncle Tonny Yengeni is claiming to understand the NUM more than its leadership, we are not stepdaughters of the ANC. The  ANC is the leader of the society and we are part of that society and our interest is in informed by that, and we cannot be told by the likes of Tony Yengeni who are suffering from political amnesia. We are advising him to sober up first before he speaks about the revolution. He should not pass by Mzoli or Ace’s place.

Retrenchments

The NUM-YS is highly concerned about the coordinated mass retrenchments taking place in the country particularly in the mining industry. The mining companies are deliberately ignoring the section 52 of MPRDA of 2002 that stipulates that “The holder of the mining right must, after consultation with any registered trade union or affected employees or their nominated representatives where there is no such trade union, notify the Minister in the prescribed manner-(a) where prevailing economic conditions cause the profit to revenue ration of the relevant mine to be less than six percent on average for continuous period of 12 months, or (b) if any mining operation is to be scaled down or to cease with the possible affect that 10 percent or more of labour force or more than 500 employees, whichever is lesser, are likely to be retrenched in any 12 months period. 

The recent retrenchments by companies have ignored these factors, and they further target young people by using the Last in First out Policy (LIFO), the policy is anti-Youth and anti-developmental, as NUM-YS we are calling upon mining houses to train young workers to be able to be employable post their employment in the mining sector.

We further call our government to make through legislation retrenchment to be more expensive in order to prevent mining companies from resorting to this bad culture where they just retrench for their own benefits which is profit driven.

Fee Increment

The NUM-YS supports the call by students in calling for free education in the country for poor, while we support these genuine grievances of students we caution them to guard against the criminal elements that are creeping to burn our infrastructures. 

The NUM National Committee further commends the efforts undertaken by the Minister of Higher Education and Training to provide a way forward for supporting students financially in our country. While we welcome this intervention we are a firm believe that this is just a short-term solution. The NUM NC support the notion that the private sector should play its rightful place, this calls for our government to declare free education for the poor in the country as resolved by the 2007 ANC Polokwane conference. The African National Congress should take a collective responsibility in this regard.

We are therefore calling our parliament to draft a legislation where companies will be taxed like we are doing with skill’s levy. The companies are the most beneficiaries of our education and training in our country. Therefore, they can’t be grandstanding without contribution to it.

We appeal to our government to craft or develop long-term sustainable funding method that will benefit the most disadvantaged communities. Education is a right to each and every citizen in our country and it must be affordable. 

We depart by calling the students and communities to come together in bringing an amicable solution to the current student’s challenges. NUM is highly perturbed by the behaviour of both management of higher institutions and private security that has been harassing students during these protests. 

The NC strongly condemns the burning of universities property, we are calling upon the state intelligence Minister Mr David Mahlobo to assist in this regard to expose these criminal elements. We believe that there is a third force behind the destruction of university properties and they must be exposed. 

On Ubank

Historically, finance capital has worked hand-in-glove with mining capital in South Africa. Since 1994 our own economy has not escaped the twin international trends of increasing financialization and globalisation. The biggest beneficiary of neo-liberal economic policies is finance capital that continues to take the money out of the country without benefiting the society of this country.

The financial sector has been dominated by four major banking oligopolies. (FNB, ABSA, STANDARD BANK and NEDBANK)

The NC once again reiterates the decision of the Central Committee of NUM that took place in June this year that said it is opposed to any attempt to the selling of the bank. NUM is aware of the capital requirements of Ubank and supports any form of the capitalisation that will not result in the selling of the Bank.

Despite these utterances by NUM highest decision-making body, the CEO of Ubank and the Board of directors have continued to undermine this decision and used all the tricks to get the bank sold at all cost.

The NUM-YS NC has lost confidence in both the CEO and Board of directors taking into consideration their appetite to sell the bank but fail to come up with mechanisms of changing the status of the bank. We, therefore, call for the immediate suspension of the two by the trustee.

On International 

The establishment of BRICS bank continues to pose a threat to the imperialists, this has been witnessed in Brazil when a democratically elected President, Dilma Rousseff has been removed by a mob. The NUM was established and strengthened through solidarity that we received from other progressive countries, this also applied to our country when we were fighting the apartheid regime, and if it was not because of the support we received around the world, we would not be where we are today.

It is against this background that we extend our unwavering support to the people of Brazil particularly the progressive forces that are fighting the corporate capture in that country.

We further call upon the BRICS countries to move swiftly with the implementation of the establishment of the BRICS bank, this will accelerate the development of our people and further release us from the bondages of imperialists.

An attack on our allies at Brazil should be viewed as an attack to South Africans taking into consideration the strategic relation we are having with them.

For more information please contact:

Sabelo Mgotywa: NUM-YS National Secretary:  083 678 2557

The National Union of Mineworkers
7 Rissik Street.
Cnr Frederick Johannesburg
Tel: 011 377 2111 Cell: 083 809 3257
Twitter: @Num_Media

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