The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) elected new leaders on Wednesday despite a court interdict granted on Saturday to suspend the 11th national congress.
The congress was meant to start on Monday but Judge Graham Moshoana found the union had not complied with its own constitution when suspending 31 Numsa officials, including second deputy president Ruth Ntlokotse, and the five-day congress could therefore not continue until it did so.
Moshoana found their suspension was “unconstitutional, invalid and unenforceable in law”.
Despite this new leadership was elected.
Irvin Jim was re-elected as general secretary and Andrew Chirwa as president.
Mbuso Ngubane, the KwaZulu-Natal regional secretary, has been elected as deputy general secretary, Mac Chavalala, the Hlanganani regional chairperson, as first deputy president, Puleng Phaka, the Northern Cape chairperson, as second deputy president, and Mphumzi Maqungo was elected national treasurer.
Numsa said in a statement earlier this week it intends to appeal the labour court judgment.
Delaying the congress was not feasible, Numsa said, because when the court ruling was handed down, many of the delegates had already flown to Cape Town to attend the congress and “total wasted costs would have amounted to approximately R39m”.
Source: TimesLIVE
