Numsa national congress did not breach interdict, court rules

Former Numsa deputy president Ruth Ntlokotse has failed in her bid to hold the union and its general secretary Irvin Jim in contempt of court by proceeding with its national congress in July in spite of her obtaining an interdict stopping the event until it “complied with its own constitution”.

Ntlokotse, in her urgent application which was heard by Johannesburg Labour Court Judge Andre van Niekerk last week, was also seeking an order that “all that was done under the guise of the congress be declared to be null and void and resolutions passed, including nominations and elections are invalid and have no force or effect”.

She wanted Jim and president Andrew Chirwa to be sent to prison for 30 days, suspended on condition that they comply with the order, which was granted by Labour Court Judge Graham Moshoana on 23 July, two days before the congress was to start.

But Judge van Niekerk has dismissed her application.

Read the judgment here.

Referring to the history of the matter, Judge van Niekerk said Judge Moshoana had made an order declaring the suspension of Ntlokotse and other Numsa members to be unconstitutional and invalid.

He had also interdicted Numsa from proceeding with its 11th National Congress “unless it fully complied with the terms of its own constitution”.

Judge van Niekerk said it was not disputed that the first part of the order had been complied with and the suspensions had been lifted.

In the matter before him, he only had to determine whether the union and its officials had wilfully breached the interdict.

He said Jim, in his affidavit, had said that after the granting of the interdict, the national congress was delayed and a special meeting of the union’s central committee was convened where “decisions called into question by the judgment were identified”.

These included the suspension of certain members, including Ntlokotse, the decision to place the Mpumalanga region under administration (with the consequence that delegates from that region would not be permitted to attend the national congress) and the decision that the central committee — and not a credentials committee — would decide who could attend.

“The respondents aver that they unconditionally accepted that these matters were not compliant with the constitution,” Judge van Niekerk said.

The suspensions were lifted and a credentials committee was appointed. That committee then met and resolved not to accredit delegates from Mpumalanga because the region had last held a regional congress in 2016 and the view was that the executive committee “did not represent the will of union members in the province”.

Jim, in his affidavit, said that the constitutional defects had thus been cured, paving the way for the national congress to begin on 27 July.

Jim said the previously suspended members, including Ntlokotse, were not excluded from the national congress, the judge said.

Ntlokotse, in her affidavit, insisted however that the union had breached the interdict, that the central committee had met in her absence, and that she and others had been effectively barred from attending any of the meetings because no travel and accommodation arrangements had been made for them. She contended that the exclusion of the Mpumalanga region was unlawful.