NUMSA statement on the smear campaign by Micah Reddy and Amabhungane

25 July 2022

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) is a Marxist-Leninist inspired trade union. We are committed to Karl Marx’s view that, “a free press is the ever vigilant eye of the people’s spirit, the embodiment of the people’s trust in itself… It is the people’s outspoken self-confession, whose redeeming power is well known”. But we are equally mindful of Vladimir Lenin’s dictum that: “A lie told often enough becomes the truth”.

Unfortunately, we have for some years – and especially in the last 6 months – been confronted by a systematic smear campaign by individuals and journalists who have instrumentalized social media and mainstream media to make entirely unsubstantiated allegations against our union and its democratically elected leadership. This campaign is directly linked to an attempt at a hostile take-over of the union, organised by some NGOs and their networks. As a union, we welcome meaningful and critical engagement. But we cannot continue to remain silent as a group of unelected individuals slander and attack the decisions of our union of more than 350 000 workers.

When, for example, Amandla Magazine, declares “Take back the unions for their members” they do not really mean this. They ignore the plain fact that NUMSA is controlled by its members and that all elected officials serve at the pleasure of the members and can be removed by the members at any time. What they really desire is precisely the opposite - to seize control of the union from its members and place it under the tutelage of unelected individuals. What they really desire is NGO capture.

The media has been weaponized in service of this project. We recently received a 12 page list of statements from Micah Reddy of Amabhungane where he makes all kinds of wild allegations informed by racist conspiracy theories (see article produced here - PW). Micah Reddy and Amabhungane have clearly confirmed the widespread view in the labour movement, and in the mass based left more widely, that they are closely associated, personally and politically, with the NGOs and their networks trying to organise a hostile takeover of NUMSA and other radical independent working class formations.

Reddy’s reporting on the labour movement has consistently been biased and thoroughly rooted in malicious innuendo which is not supported by evidence. His modus operandi is to make plainly untrue and defamatory statements seem credible to a casual reader by prefacing them with phrases like “it is understood that”, “sources say” and so on.

This has been going since 2018 when Reddy – without citing a single worker – published an article titled “Numsa cornered by capital”. In it he claimed (in a move that would soon become a trademark of his hatchet jobs), that there is widespread dissatisfaction with the leadership of NUMSA. He made no effort to deal with the blindingly obvious fact that this is an elected leadership that serves at the pleasure of the union’s members and the congress is exactly about renewal of mandates and to democratically elect new leadership.

The piece makes the ludicrous claim that the NUMSA General Secretary has somehow been captured by Khandani Msibi who heads the NUMSA Investment Company and implies that because of this, the NUMSA GS is now aligned to the RET faction of the ANC. No actual evidence is given for these claims aside from his standard “sources say” style of dressing up slander as credible. Reddy claims that NUMSA’s expression of concern about the privatisation of energy provision at the cost of workers’ jobs  and the country  by it being handed over to IPPs somehow implies support for the RET faction of the ANC.

It is only an idiot like Reddy who can celebrate that the whole country’s energy provision can be openly captured and see nothing wrong with that.  It clearly exposes his ideological bankruptcy as everybody else who is normal knows that if private capital captures our country’s energy it will drive the maximisation of profits and we would have to forget about a  competitive affordable tariff to power the economy and to electrify our communities. Reddy is absolutely confused. Of course, the ANC is divided among its factions, and they have expressed different views about the current ANC government handling of the energy crisis in our country.

It is therefore stupid of him, because he cannot understand, a simple position that NUMSA has advanced, regardless of how ANC factions view such a position, when it comes to the country’s energy provision. The position that NUMSA has maintained is that as a union we are firm in demanding a Just Transition and as a union we are not against the movement from fossil fuels to renewables, but such a movement must be done at a cost and a pace that the country can afford. We obviously reject privatisation of our country’s energy provision, and we firmly demand that South Africa as a sovereign country has a right to decide what energy mix will suit our country’s energy needs.

Furthermore, NUMSA rejected the ANC and the alliance at its Special National Congress in 2013 and gave birth to political party the SRWP to contest the ANC’s hegemony during elections. This decision put Socialism as a viable ideology back on the map. As a union, NUMSA has consistently championed radical economic policies such as nationalisation of all commanding heights and all our minerals and at the back of such minerals, we have consistently demanded that the state must intervene in the economy and champion a job-led industrial strategy.

It is only Reddy that does not see such policies as constituting radical economic transformation. On what basis should we be accused of being captured and on what grounds should we be compared to anyone? As a union our daily struggle is to unapologetically pursue genuine radical economic transformation on behalf of workers and the working class in general. The court case which NUMSA won in 2018 at the constitutional court, regarding labour brokers is the perfect example of campaigns in favour of the working class broadly, not just NUMSA members. There are numerous examples of court battles and campaigns which NUMSA has led for the benefit of the working class majority and NUMSA members in particular. 

Reddy even goes so far as to imply that Msibi played some sort of role in the election of Irvin Jim as the NUMSA General Secretary in 2008. This is such a grievous insult to the intelligence and political agency of NUMSA’s members that it requires no response other than to be dismissed with the contempt it deserves. Yet, it should be noted, for the record, that Msibi had no role in NUMSA in 2008 and was only given a position at the investment company after the 2008 National Congress. Simple fact checking by Reddy and his editors would have debunked this fabrication and saved Reddy and his editors from at best lazy – and at worst malicious – journalism.

One of the most atrocious of the many misrepresentations in the article, is Reddy’s insinuation that the NUMSA GS met with Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in 2017 to pursue what Reddy calls Jim’s “personal ambitions” within the RET faction of the ANC. It is simply and demonstrably untrue that, as Reddy claims, “Jim did not disclose the meeting to NUMSA office bearers”. Reddy writes that Numsa attempted to justify the meeting by saying that its leadership met Dlamini-Zuma “in her capacity as the Chair of the African Union” to “learn from her, her views of the state of the African Continent in general and in particular, what should be done over crisis spots such as Zambia”.

It is a simple fact that the NUMSA GS met Dlamini-Zuma in her capacity as chair of the AU with the explicit purpose of seeking her assistance to deal with the repression of the media in Zambia and the repression meted out by the Edgar Lungu regime against Fred M’membe and his newspaper The Post. Dr. M’membe is a highly respected editor and leader of the Socialist Party of Zambia. M’membe is also an award winning journalist who is widely respected. A simple Google search would have revealed that he has received numerous international awards for his reporting.

In 2000, the International Press Institute named him one of its World Press Freedom Heroes. It is entirely to the union’s credit that it sought support from the AU to oppose Lungu’s repression on the working class. Reddy, instead of endorsing this solidarity with fellow journalist on the African continent, takes an entirely commendable action by the union and cynically spins it to make it look like something bad. This is not journalism. It is shockingly malicious slander masquerading as journalism.

The misuse of the media to side with particular factions  and to drive their politically opportunistic agenda within the labour movement (with NUMSA being targeted for capture by right-wing marauding gangs of no particular origin, presenting themselves as left), has unfortunately picked up in recent months, with other media houses picking up the lies from Reddy. GroundUp has often been an important asset for the working class. We were therefore very disappointed that on 1 March GroundUp published the first of a series of misleading articles on 3Sixty Life, the insurance company owned by NUMSA. These articles consistently inferred that the financial difficulties at the insurer are the consequence of corrupt behaviour of the NUMSA General Secretary. 

The fact that 3Sixty Life has sponsored several NUMSA events is a non-issue. 3Sixty is an independent corporation and corporates routinely sponsor events as part of their marketing. Credible reporting on these matters would have noted that there are three independently constituted governance structures which separate the NUMSA GS from 3Sixty. The GS does not sit on the board of 3Sixty Life and has no power over it. 

We remain disappointed at the uncritical and sensationalist reporting from GroundUp journalists and their editorial team. As a union, we have been at the forefront of fighting against corruption – whether in the ANC under Jacob Zuma or the looting of public infrastructure through the collapse of SOE’s under Cyril Ramaphosa. They are alleging that there is corruption without any evidence. This is clearly an attempt by some individuals to exploit our free media and its commitments to free speech and journalism to continuously throw mud in the hope that it sticks. This is slander.

We have decided not to waste our time responding to Reddy’s questions because we do not take him seriously as a journalist. We view him as nothing more than a spokesperson for an anti-black an anti-working class faction, which is determined to discredit and collapse independent radical, black working class formations. 

A free and credible media is a vital bedrock for any democratic society. However, it is well known that, in South Africa, the media has often been captured by specific interests in political battles of various kinds. This problem is dealt with clearly and at some length in the independent Inquiry into Media Ethics and Credibility commissioned by the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and published in January 2021. The report warns, very strongly, of “the dangers of factional alignment”. Quality journalism is in danger of being de-legitimized as outlined above and we can no longer afford to ignore this warning.

This is why we request that all editors do the following:

1.    Be aware that dishonesty is being regularly mobilised as the political temperature escalates because of the congress. Please take great care to check the veracity of all claims. Every claim needs to be carefully checked against actual evidence. 

2.    Be mindful that media ethics preclude the practice of going to print before people who are slandered or even defamed in an article have had time to reply to the questions put to them. Our union has often been ambushed with questions received moments before publication.

3.    Understand that there is now a long and well-noted history of intense racism and classism within the NGO sector, and there have been regular attempts to wrest control from the members of popular organisations. For this reason, NGO bosses should not be assumed to be neutral commentators. They should be treated like any other political player – who are promoting certain interests.

4.    It is disappointing that the majority of journalists do not even bother to research, on a basic level, the actual political, organisational and governance structures in the union and the organisations associated with it. The NUMSA constitution is available on its website. Media houses should be embarrassed that journalists do not even bother to read and educate themselves on this before publishing. This will drastically reduce the embarrassing reporting where independent organisations are co-mingled into a sensationalist story.

5.    Take great care not to assign writers to labour stories who are closely associated, or even perceived to be closely associated, with a particular interest of NGO-organised attempts at hostile takeovers of the labour movement. For all our sakes, writers should be independent and credible. 

6.    Be aware that our public sphere deserves rational arguments. Even if journalists are unwilling or unable to confirm the empirical validity of their claims the stories should not be incoherent and contradictory. After all, how can the NUMSA GS be (as Reddy and others have reported), a supporter of the RET faction of the ANC and be passionately committed to building the SRWP into a mass party? Others, like the Sunday World, have made the absurd claim stating that the GS intends to take NUMSA back into COSATU. All three of these claims are often made and yet, they cannot be simultaneously true.

7.    NUMSA holds constitutional meetings through the NEC which meets every quarter, and its finances are declared to members in full by the National Treasurer. The cars and the houses which the leadership live in, are assets which belong to the union and not to the individual NOB who happens to be driving a car. The bodyguards are provided by the union. There are resolutions taken by NUMSA members which govern, in great detail, the lifestyle of the leadership – to the point where members have even debated whether the leadership should be allowed to have DSTV. Therefore, when media houses simply write as though the union leadership is corrupt without providing any credible evidence, we are dealing with rumour mongering (at the expense of the decisions taken by our members), not journalism. We encourage all journalists to respect the processes of the union and to take seriously the constituency to which we account.

We have noted, more recently, that individuals on social media, have made wild allegations against NUMSA and its leadership. These include that NUMSA leadership is stealing money; that NUMSA leadership is part of factions of the ANC; that NUMSA leadership does not represent the interests of its members; that the NUMSA GS is corrupt; that the NUMSA leadership is presiding over an undemocratic dictatorship. Unfortunately for this cabal that works with Micah Reddy, which unleashes propaganda with an intention to liquidate NUMSA leadership, NUMSA is not accountable to them. We do not seek their approval. We account to our members everyday. We are with our members in the trenches and fighting their battels. We will report in detail on all matters affecting the union, including our finances, in constitutional meetings. We do not seek the approval of Micah Reddy and Amabhungane who are weaponised by the enemy that is tiptoeing in the shadows to destroy NUMSA and its democratically elected leadership.

This kind of campaign of slander goes back to the infamous ‘open letter’ which circulated in 2017. That letter was a racist rant, full of crude lies and wild defamation and slander. Anyone who looked at the properties of the document would have seen who the author was and yet many media houses reported on it as if it was a credible and serious critique. Now that there is a new round of slander on social media driven by a familiar network of people, we ask that the media check all statements made against evidence before treating them as credible to avoid repeating the fiasco in 2017 when lies were taken seriously without any attempt to check them against available facts.

Since our formation in 1987, NUMSA has been consistent in advancing the interests of its members, in particular, and the working class in general. This has been achieved through our unwavering commitment to worker control and our willingness to defend the decisions taken by our members. The relentless attacks on the democratic decisions taken by our members – and the attempt to misrepresent them as the individual decisions of the NUMSA General Secretary by those mandated to execute them – are an attack on the fabric of our organisation.

For years we have remained quiet while we have been slandered and kept our focus on the struggle to secure the momentary victories for our members. We thought that we would let our work speak for itself and ignore the lies. But we cannot continue to allow this relentless defamation to continue unopposed. We must now insist on honest and evidence-based debate.

Today we are making an unequivocal call to all individuals and media platforms to immediately cease and desist from the defamatory remarks that they have been making. The allegations made against NUMSA, and its leadership must be backed up by evidence. We are warning that we will no longer tolerate any unsubstantiated allegations, and we are making it clear that we reserve the right to take legal action against anyone who continues to peddle lies.

#SpreadFactsNotFiction

Aluta continua!

The struggle continues!

Issued Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, National Spokesperson, NUMSA, 25 July 2022