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Background

The National Union of Mineworkers Youth Structure (NUM-YS) held its second National Committee meeting this year starting from the 19th to the 20th of May 2016 at Elijah Barayi Memorial Training Centre in Midrand.

The meeting took place when the movement is facing  a number of challenges that call for the unity of the working class in dealing with them; they need sober and dedicated cadres of the movement. We met when the African National Congress (ANC) is at the cross road.

The R25 wage agreement signed between Sibanye Gold Mine and Joseph Sell-out Mathunjwa

The NUM-YS is very perturbed by the continuous apartheid tendencies of divide and rule led by Sibanye Gold Mine in the mining Sector, we reject the so-called R25 stability settlement. We call upon Sibanye Gold to respect the agreement signed at the Chamber of mines in 2015. If they want to open wage negotiations they know the right place. We call upon workers to reject the deal between Joseph Mathunjwa and Sibanye Gold CEO Neil Froneman. We refuse to be counted amongst the sell-outs who sold workers at a price of R25 because it is an insult to poor workers.

If Joseph Mathunjwa wants sell workers he should do that at his own peril, our members are not for sale.
We demand a living wage, not peanuts given by the mining companies.

Mining Charter Review

The NUM Youth Structure welcomes the Gazetted draft of the Mining Charter for public comments.  This opportunity will give life to the founding objectives of the Freedom Charter, amongst them is to ensure that the wealth of this country is shared amongst who those who work it.

The NUM-YS will submit the following proposal to the minister that will focus on the development of young people of this country who are the majority in the workplace and in the entire country.
We welcome the decision by the department to retain the current 26% ownership by people from the historically disadvantaged background. We further welcome the removal of the ‘’once empowered always empowered” principle.

We are also calling for Chamber of Mines and its members to refrain from always pointing fingers at DMR when they are failing to implement the Charter. The draft charter further calls for a minimum ownership of 5% for workers, communities, and BEE entrepreneurs relatively. We believe this will benefit the majority of this country who have been robbed  of their rights to own the minerals.

We are calling for 10% (broadly), set aside for youth in mining and the labour-sending areas. On the procurement,  we welcome the increased targets, however, we have a strong view that the following should be revisited, on the BEE compliant the companies must have 10% set aside for youth and on the 60% locally manufactured capital; goods from the BEE compliant manufacturing companies should ensure that 10% of the workforce is young people.

The 10% of the above targets must be from 100% youth owned companies, thus ensuring their enterprise development initiatives are inclusive of the youth. Human Resource Development, Employment Equity and mine community development, these initiatives should be inclusive of many unemployed and employed qualified youth.The issue of Free education in our country cannot be left unattended the NUM Youth Structure is calling for big businesses to include 5% of their yearly budget to fund the education in this country as they are the most beneficiaries in the process. This should not replace the 1% that the companies are paying for skills levy.

Ubank (Workers Bank)

The NUM-YS welcomes the decision taken by the NEC of NUM to clarify once and for all, that the Ubank is not for sale. We further thank the governor for giving us an opportunity to consult our members on how are we going to protect their assets. We strongly believe that Ubank is the strategic asset of the workers and its ownership must and should remain in the hands of workers. We should expose those who were pushing for the sale of Ubank at all costs undermining the decision of the NEC. Based on the above background we have completely lost confidence that they will focus their energy to save the bank and further grow it to the benefit of the workers, we are left with no options but to request the CEO of Ubank Mr Luthando Vuthula to do the right thing and the right thing is to give others a chance who are going to respect NUM and the workers. His departure in our view will assist to grow the bank. The bank needs sober minds and dedicated people who will work tirelessly to serve the interest of the workers.
We further call upon those who were hell bent to sell the bank to vultures to refrain from that and other further tricks of undermining the NUM NEC.
Ubank is not for sale, we will defend it with everything we have. Our members are encouraged to bank with the workers bank (Ubank).

Social responsibility

As part of our social responsibility, the NUM Youth Structure handed over three soccer kits at Rooipoort Primary School in Carletonville region in March 2016. The donation was made possible by Teba Trust Fund. We will continue with our social responsibility activities and we are still expecting more clothes from other donors. 
We have also donated over 250 school shoes to seven schools at Nelson Mandela Metro region in the Eastern Cape.  The following schools benefitted from the initiative: Dumani Primary School, Ikhwezelihle Primary School,    Imbasa Primary School,     Khulile Primary School,     Nxanelimfundo Primary School, Kwanoxolo Primary School, and Zanoxolo Primary School.

June Month

According to stats SA this year alone we have lost 75 000 jobs through retrenchments and we can confirm that majority of those jobs are from mining, as companies have decided to downsize without looking at any other options. Where we are there is nobody who is sure of his or her future based on this we are left with no option but to take the matter to the streets, on the 15 June 2016 the NUM-YS will be marching to Eskom, mining companies and department of labour. We call upon all young people in the country to join us in this fight as the majority of the people retrenched are young people.
To mark the youth month the structure will be visiting Free State Region, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Highveld region (Mpumalanga province) to embark on a month-long programme that includes recruitment, sports activities, marches and political education. We call upon the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) formations to support the programmes.

Developments in the Progressive Youth Alliance

The NUM-YS has been following the SRC elections with keen interest, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate SASCO for ensuring that Fort Hare University is reclaimed from counter-revolutionary forces DASO. We are further calling for the leadership of SASCO to ensure that all institutions of higher learning are under its leadership.We call upon our regions to avail themselves of the process of campaigning for our reliable allies.

Vuwani Situation

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour religion, language or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

We are using the above lines precisely because young people’s rights to education are being undermined.  Irrespective of frustrations and the predicaments our communities faces there is no justification for resorting to violence.Burning schools and destroying public property is a criminal offence and it must be condemned with the contempt it deserves. We call upon the state security to act swiftly in dealing with all those who are found guilty or the perpetrators of violence.

The ANC must at the same time listen to our communities. We are calling for calm in Vuwani to allow children to go back to school.

Local Government Elections

The NUM National Congress that took place in June 2015 resolved that we are going to campaign for the ANC in the next local government elections. The NUM-YS commits itself in implementing the congress resolution in ensuring that ANC wins all municipalities with a vast majority. The NUM members are encouraged to vote correctly to ensure victory of ANC is certain

NUM Central Committee

The NUM Youth Structure wishes the NUM a successful Central Committee meeting. Unity of the NUM is sacrosanct.

Issued by the National Union of Mineworkers