Numsa denies violence during strike

The strike in the metals and engineering sector continues as the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) rejected a revised offer by employers on 3 July.

According to the Steel Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa), efforts to end the current stalemate in the sector, which had resulted in a violent strike, had failed after the union rejected its offer of a three-year wage deal of between eight and 10 percent.

The federation’s chief executive officer, Kaizer Nyatsumba said failure to reach an agreement was deeply disappointing and accused the union of pursuing a political agenda.

“Numsa has taken its opposition to labour brokers, and the youth wage subsidy up with the government and failed to get an outcome to its liking, now the union wants to impose its wishes on employers,” Nyatsumba said.

It had become increasingly clear that the union had approached the negotiations with a political agenda, which it wanted to wage through the guise of negotiations on wages and conditions of employment, he added.

Further, the federation said it strongly condemned the violent behaviour of some of the striking workers and called on union leaders to rein in their errant members. The federation further called on the police to take decisive action to maintain order.

Nyatsumba said it was inundated with reports from its members of blatant acts of lawlessness, including violence and general mayhem, by some of the striking Numsa members.

Nyatsumba acknowledged the workers’ right to go on strike, but said there was “absolutely no room for violence”.

Acts of violence and intimidation had been reported across the country in the past two days, with Gauteng being the most effected province, the federation said.

However, Numsa denied any involvement in the violence, intimidation and vandalism reported during its strike. The union’s national spokesperson Castro Ngobese claimed that the accusations made by employers in the engineering sector were part of a “cheap ploy” to undermine the integrity of the workers’ struggle for a living wage and improved conditions of employment.

Ngobese described the federation’s statements as “unsubstantiated accusations”, adding that no amount of false propaganda and slanderous accusations by the employers will undermine the strike.