Numsa wants out from ANC alliance: Jim

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Numsa's Irvin Jim. (SABC)

National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim says the alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) is not working out. He says they want out from the alliance.

Speaking on SAfm's Forum@8, he says Numsa has taken a conscious decision that it is time that the working class should organise itself as a class.

Jim says, "Workers actually took a decision in a democratic fashion. Workers said that for all the years we have voted for the ANC, we spent money. The workers said that "your leadership led us to believe that all things will be addressed and that there shall be a new growth path. The workers gave us a tight mandate; do away with e-tolls and ban labour brokers."

Workers told Numsa’s leadership that it’s time to form a United Front

He says the turning point was the adoption of the National Development Plan in Mangaung. In Numsa's 2013 secretariat report, it highlights their stance on several issues and the NDP is one of the issues.

It states that: "The ANC has made it clear that the National Development Plan will be a cornerstone of its 2014 manifesto. We have identified the National Development Plan as a fundamentally neo-liberal document since we first responded to the analysis document that preceded it. We have been absolutely clear, since the ANC adopted the Plan at Mangaung, that we regard it as a direct assault on the working class."

He says workers told Numsa’s leadership that it’s time to form a United Front.

"We have taken two fundamental resolutions; firstly we will continue to persuade Cosatu affiliates and workers that it is time that we take a decision that this alliance is dead. This alliance with the ANC is not working. The second thing that workers said was that now it is time to form a united front. We need to build a popular movement in the form of united front," says Jim.


 
Click here to listen to Irvin Jim on their plans to form a United Front.


Numsa didn’t support the ruling party in last week’s general elections. Jim says workers democratically said: "We shall not campaign for the ANC."

He says people want to condemn Numsa for embarking on a democratic process.

Click here listen to Irvin Jim on Cosatu.

On President Jacob Zuma, he says under Zuma’s leadership, there have been scandals after scandals. He says people must accept that Zuma is just deployed.

"I think people must accept that President Jacob Zuma is just a deployee just like all the deployees of the liberation alliance that we have been part of. You want to tell us that occupying the centre of power that he occupies; he knows nothing about Nkandla and the Gupta plane landing at the airforce base. We are undermined, why should we accept that?"

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This article was first published on SABCNews site. It was done by Sthembiso Sithole.