Numsa calls for Zuma resignation
Numsa acting president Andrew Chirwa asked metalworkers on December 17, at an event held in Boksburg, to consider calling on President Jacob Zuma to resign.
“Should we not ask our own President Jacob Zuma, who benefited from this saga, to resign in the interest of the poor?” he asked delegates.
“Must we not ask that he resigns to preserve the legacy of Nelson Mandela?”
He was referring to the over R206-m upgrade to Zuma’s private homestead at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal, calling it a gross abuse and theft of public money.
Numsa accused the alliance between the ANC, SA Communist Party and Cosatu of appearing only when it was election time.
He said the alliance was incapable of ending poverty and inequality.
“There is no amount of unity that can change the plight of the poor.”
He said the only solution was the freedom charter.
Chirwa said Numsa was still waiting to see the ANC’s so-called radical programme it had talked about in its discussion document in Mangaung last year, referring to the second phase of transition.
“That second phase, it’s the second phase of E-tolls. We have still yet to see the radical part.”
Numsa is expected to discuss whether it should support the ANC in next year’s elections and whether it should break away from Cosatu.
He accused Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini of elevating himself above the trade union federation by not convening a special Cosatu congress.
He said that Numsa could not fight for Cosatu, which was like a house, which had been abandoned, and only the sign “Beware of the Dog” remained.
“That’s not the Cosatu we prepared to fight for.”
