The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) strongly condemns the spurious and slanderous article “Jim faces revolt”, in today’s [Monday 01 June 2015] edition of The New Age.

The article cannot only be described as a piece of fiction and factional work, but seeks to injure the person and stature of Numsa’s General Secretary cde Irvin Jim, based on a false claim that he is a “dictator” that uses other unions “for his own purposes”. Numsa is not surprised by this latest tirade, since The New Age is captured by forces opposed to the current Numsa leadership and our political posture, emanating from our groundbreaking Special National Congress (SNC) held in 2013.

The New Age alleges that “divisions have crept in among pro-Numsa trade unions after some of the unions attended last week’s Cosatu central executive committee meeting, where the agenda for the much vaunted special national congress was drawn up”. This is a fabricated lie in order to send a false message that Numsa no longer enjoys support amongst Cosatu’s affiliates. We still enjoy massive support amongst affiliates that have stood with us since our expulsion on November 06, 2014. This support has been cemented and crystalized with our recently held successful May Day marches in Durban; Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Secondly, the agenda of the special national congress does not rest with the Central Executive Committee (CEC), but is determined by the Affiliates that have petitioned the President to convene the special congress, as per the constitutional provisions of the Cosatu constitution.

Furthermore, no meeting was held to make unwarranted accusations to affiliates that are now participating in Cosatu CEC’s “as selling us out”. Numsa respects decisions and political wisdom of other affiliates, informed by their autonomy and worker mandated positions from their respective internal structures.

Lastly, Numsa has always been a champion of the free press, including expecting the newsrooms to uphold the highest standards of fair and ethical journalism. This latest article by The New Age, does not only reinforces our suspicion of a political agenda, but buries the ethics and standards for any credible newspaper with their lazy and shoddy journalism.

We publicly demand a retraction from The New Age, failure to adhere to this demand; we will approach the Press Ombudsman.

Issued by NUMSA