Numsa names the parties South Africans should NOT vote for
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim says its members should stay away from the ‘worst political butchers’ on election day.
The general secretary of South Africa’s largest trade union, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), has warned working-class citizens to stay away from seven political parties come election day on 29 May, labelling them the “worst political butchers”.
Earlier this week, Irvin Jim and Numsa’s leadership announced a decision, taken by the union’s national executive committee, on their stance ahead of the 2024 general elections, saying “it was impossible for Numsa to keep quiet and for the union not to take a political posture on the elections”.
NUMSA ISSUES CALL ON POLITICAL PARTIES TO STAY AWAY FROM
“Numsa identifies the following political parties as the worst, which the working class must not vote for, and they are:
- Democratic Alliance (DA)
- ActionSA
- Freedom Front Plus
- Patriotic Alliance
- Build One South Africa
- Rise Mzansi
- African Christian Democratic Party
“Numsa also called on the working class not to waste votes by voting for individual candidates,” said Jim.
Calling the seven parties “right-wing capitalist political parties who have no mercy for the working class”, Jim implored its members not to trust these parties that “promise heaven and earth”, saying that after they had secured their votes they would attack the working-class.
Jim also took specific aim at the DA and said it was “extremely irritated” by the John Steenhuisen-led party’s supposed moves “to do away with all incentives targeting sectors such as the auto sector, tyre industry, the rest of the component value chain and the textile sector”.
“The DA’s mission is to destroy industrialisation, clearly their plan is to take South Africa back to a police state,” said Jim. “No Numsa member should vote for the DA as the DA is targeting the job security of workers.”
NUMSA’S SRWP SITS OUT 2024 ELECTIONS
Other than its plea to voters, Numsa will not be a player in the 2024 elections, after its Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) failed to make it onto the ballot.
Formed in December 2018 by Numsa and the Zwelinzima Vavi-led South African Federation of Trade Unions, the SRWP contested the 2019 general elections but performed dismally, garnering a 0.14% slice (24,439 votes) of the national pie and failing to make it to the National Assembly.