A major challenge facing the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) in 2025 is to continue to represent the working class in spite of the ANC’s betrayal.
This is according to Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.
Hlubi-Majola said that their task is significant because 2024 has been marked by rolling blackouts stemming from the chaotic, unplanned switch from fossil fuels to renewables and a bloodbath of job losses rooted in the Covid-19 era.
“In 2024, we lost 700 jobs at Mercedes-Benz, and of course workers secured packages negotiated by Numsa,” Hlubi-Majola said.
“We saved 107 jobs at Ford in Pretoria, and we successfully delayed the crisis in Toyota SA, where close to 200 workers took good voluntary severance packages negotiated by the union.
“However, as we close the year, we have learnt that the crisis has deepened, and 700 workers at Toyota and in the value chain are facing retrenchments.”
Despite President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claims that the economy is doing better in his New Year’s speech, Hlubi-Majola said that the job market is in a terrible state.
Working class under attack
She said: “Politically, we are faced with the national crisis of de-industrialisation, which is worsening poverty, unemployment and inequality.
“This is continuing against the backdrop of the catastrophe of the ANC having lost political power for its failure to drive a revolutionary liberation vision.
“This resulted in it going into bed with the reactionary DA to continue to pursue its failed neo-liberal policies in the form of Growth, Employment and Redistribution and the National Development Plan.”
The general public is suffering as a result of the ANC’s policies, she continued, adding that Numsa is urging everyone who supports creating a society that benefits humanity to come together.
“This is a vision that our people have been desperately looking for since the dark days of apartheid and also in today’s hollow democracy, which gave us political power without economic power.
“Given that the working class is under siege and it will not be liberated by a coalition with the DA, we will talk less, but we will dirty our hands in building the unity of the working class around its common struggles.”
