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NUM says members might not vote ANC

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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says its members might choose not to vote for the African National Congress (ANC) in the forthcoming general elections.

This after the presidency sent a junior staff member to receive their memorandum of demands, which they refused to hand over.

More than 1000 workers from the Optimum coal mine, a former Gupta-owned mine in Mpumalanga, have not received salaries for three months.

This has prompted them to march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to seek intervention. The National Chairperson for NUM, Duncan Luvuno, says they are losing confidence in the government.

“The ANC needs to show itself as the caring organisation. How can we say it’s a caring organisation if the minister of DMR is not here, if Jeff Rabede is busy dally darling delaying to come here. It’s election time, we cannot be in a position to tell our members in their thousands to say go and vote for ANC. We even know that the congress of Cosatu said we must vote for the ANC. How can we vote for the ANC on an empty stomach? How can we vote for the ANC if our children do not have money to go to school, when there is no food on the table, why should we do that?” says Luvuno.

Cosatu has given the Optimum mine 24 hours to pay the workers. Deputy General Secretary Solly Phetoe says they will mobilise for a total shutdown next month.

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