The Regional Secretary of Numsa in the Northern Cape, Andile Zitho, says that Numsa members from the Northern Cape are making their way to Welkom in the Free State to join in the nationwide Numsa protest. He says that as Numsa, they are left with no choice but to embark on a strike as employer associations in engineering are not meeting their demands. He says that Numsa leadership was engaging with the employer association for the entire weekend to emerge with an agreement that could prevent the strike. However, the negotiation collapsed at the last minute.  

“Our strike is a strike against the arrogant attitude of the employers in the engineering and the metal industry. They are refusing to give an increase to our members. We went to the table [with our dispute], they are offering 4.4% and workers are demanding 8%,” he adds.

Zitho says that the strike will continue until their demands are met. According to Zitho, the employer association has turned a blind eye to the sacrifices that workers and their families made for the engineering sector.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi