NUMSA HAS REPORTED BURGARLY AT ITS HEAD QUARTERS (HQ) TO THE POLICE

Last night, Thursday 26 September 2013, unknown men broke-in into our Head Office premises in Newtown, 153 Bree (Cnr Gerard Sekoto) Street, Johannesburg, and stole highly sensitive IT equipment belonging to the union.

This latest burglary or brake-in joins a long list of other similar incidents that have occurred in the recent past. We are adamant that this latest burglary or break-in is not an act of criminality, but is a well-targeted and well-orchestrated work of highly sophisticated and trained individuals.

We are suspicious that the burglary or break-in is politically motivated, and is intended to intimidate and threaten Numsa and its elected leadership. Everybody knows that Numsa has become a political target not only from our class opponents, but also from those we regard as our comrades and brothers-in-arms.

We will not be surprised if this latest incident is being dismissed as raising a false alarm or we are accused of being paranoid. We remain unshaken and we will defend ourselves in the same manner we defended ourselves during the apartheid era and underground.

We have never thought that in a democratic state we must deal with issues of security of our properties, in the similar way we did during apartheid. Our offices are a collective property of workers and we will never auction them to the enemy camp or class collaborators.

We have already reported the matter to the South African Police Services (SAPS), even though we have not received any feedback on the past similar incidents. We hope that the SAPS will do its work and act swiftly in apprehending the culprits or perpetrators.

The union will be taking extra-ordinary measures to make sure that our offices and leadership are safe and protected. We hope that the police will act on this latest incident, but we are slowly losing faith in their ability to do so.

Statement issued by Castro Ngobese, NUMSA national spokesperson, September 27 2013

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