Suspended members of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) successfully managed to interdict the union’s national congress that was supposed to start tomorrow.
The urgent court application which was launched on behalf of the other 25 members by Numsa Deputy President Ruth Ntlokose was heard in the Johannesburg Labour Court on Friday, where Judge Graham Moshoana ruled that the expulsion of the members was unconstitutional.
“Numsa is interdicted and restrained from proceeding with the 11th national congress scheduled to take place on 25-29 July 2022, until it fully complies with the terms of its constitution…It is declared that the suspensions of Ntlokose and the other Numsa members mentioned in this judgment are unconstitutional, invalid and unenforceable in law,” said the judge.
Ntlokose approached the court for an urgent application to stop the congress after she was suspended by the Numsa Central Committee (CC) two weeks ago.
She argued that in suspending her and other union members there was non-compliance with the provisions of the constitution of Numsa.
Her suspension came just a few weeks before the congress in which she was supposed to be contesting against Numsa senior leaders such as the general secretary president Irvin Jim.
Her court application was opposed by Jim and Numsa.
During the hearing, Numsa argued that it had not breached any of the clauses of its constitution and that the planned congress must continue since the workers would lose huge sums of money already expended. Therefore, it asked the court to dismiss the application.
