Irvin Jim moves to push Zwelinzima Vavi out of Saftu over ‘attacks’ on Numsa

Irvin Jim, the general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), the country’s biggest trade union, has given Zwelinzima Vavi notice that Numsa intends to recall him from his role as general secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), the union federation in which Numsa is the majority member.

According to a 28 February letter from Jim, Vavi was elected Saftu general secretary as an official of Numsa, and following a meeting of the Numsa national executive committee, the union has decided that Vavi’s conduct “does not serve the best interests of Numsa’s members and the working class in general”.

The letter says the Saftu constitution stipulates that a Saftu office bearer can be recalled by the affiliate which provided the office bearer “if the member violates the constitution of the affiliate, or brings it into disrepute, or if the affiliate considers that the person failed to represent the best interests of the union’s members and the working class in general”.

Jim writes that Vavi’s “conduct over a protracted period of time has plainly brought Numsa as an organisation in disrepute”. Jim then gives examples of the conduct that Numsa’s NEC considers disreputable, beginning on 18 March 2022.

On 1 March 2022, GroundUp broke a story that Irvin Jim’s birthday party had been paid for by 3Sixty Life, an insurer owned by Numsa and servicing its members. This was the first of a series of stories about the apparent mismanagement of 3Sixty Life and the involvement of Numsa, its ultimate owner.