Address by the Numsa general secretary during official opening of the Numsa Building
Brian Sokutu
Address by the Numsa general
secretary during the official opening of the Numsa Building - 153 CNR Bree and Becker – Newtown
Comrades and Friends
Numsa Central Committee delegates
Staff from Head Office and Gauteng Regions
Invited guests and former leaders of Numsa
Leaders of the Federation and its affiliates
It is an honour to welcome you today to this important and historic event marking the official opening of the extended Numsa Head Office. When we moved from our former Head Office, cnr Rissik and Kerk Street around in the middle of the 90’s and bought this building in 1996, everyone else in the Union and outside thought this was a bad investment decision.
Newtown at the time, this area, was dilapidated with no possibility that it would ever be rejuvenated. I recall that some of the past and present leaders would ask the question, why did you buy a building next to an illegal brothel, referring then to the Moses Mayekiso Conference Centre. We would reply, this area is going to change in the next few years. This, they could not believe.
Last year in December, we gathered here to officially open the Moses Mayekiso Conference Centre, one of the first of its kind in the history of the South African trade union movement. We turned what used to be an illegal brothel into a Conference Centre of Metalworkers.
Today this centre boosts itself of producing leaders of the National Union. Last week, Wits Central held its extended REC here. Our National meetings and sectoral meetings are held here generating income to the Centre and to the National Union. The Centre has the state of the art facilities, three Conferencing facilities and one state of the art conference which could be used to hold a global tele-conference.
Across the road, Anglo-gold has rejuvenated one of the oldest buildings around this area, the Turbine Hall dating way back to the 17th century, into a state of the art office building.
We are displaying today here, the property that we have purchased in all our regional offices. All of them are situated in up-market areas with their value appreciating. They are accessible to members, with facilities to hold our own meetings. In Mpumalanga, the Federation is one of our tenants.
Here in Johannesburg, Wits Central occupies an 8 storey building. In the Northern Cape, one of our smallest regions, they occupy a 2 storey building. Between 1998 and 2000, as a result of many internal and external factors, the failure to pay over subscriptions by employers, fraudulent contracts from service providers, weak internal administrative systems, Numsa was technically in the red to the tune of between 6-8 million rands.
During that period, paying salaries to staff at the end of the month was a nightmare. Every month, we had to apply for overdraft from the FNB. At the same time, instead of servicing the capital debt that we owed, we were servicing interest to the tune of 46 thousand every month. We took a bold decision in 2000 to clean all our debts and start from a clean slate.
This was not an easy decision; this meant among others that we froze salary increases for a year as there was no money available for increases. You can imagine the threats to strike, to go to the media to expose us, work to rule and including campaigns to remove the National Office Bearers. We explained that the choices we were making would bear fruit in the long-term.
From a net asset value of 1 million in 1998, we are today worth 241 million rands in assets that we own. From a surplus of 1 million in 1998, we made a surplus of 64 million in 2007. We are among the best paying affiliates of the Federation. None of our programmes, education and others are externally funded from donors. Numsa pays 100 percent. We have even gone to the extent of providing funding to build unions in our neighbouring countries.
We have even gone further, to provide financial and material support to our trade union counter-parts in Nigeria. The African delegation coming to our Congress in October will be fully in flights, accommodation by Numsa.
This very same Congress, unlike the previous has been budgeted for years in advance. We would not pay anything from the current subscriptions, but draw money from investments made since the last Congress.
This prudent management of finances, unfortunately, makes it difficult for service providers who have an interest in determining the outcome of Congress elections, to do so. But there are others who are saying, even though we have not been requested to pledge donations for the Congress, we have been told what the outcome would be. Good luck, Metalworkers will decide their leadership. This also extends to some leaders in the National Liberation Movement and trade unions.
I have always said in the past when there were difficulties, no one wanted to lead or be associated with Numsa when there were difficulties, all of a sudden, all of us are capable of leading.
This is not a message here today intended to campaign for the October Congress as others would interpret it, but facts that should be known and available for everyone in the organization. This is a legacy of hard work, prudent management of our resources, efficient running of the organization, and bold leadership of the leadership. We must protect this legacy at all costs. I known of many unions in Cosatu that would be healthier in their resources, they then relax, go on a spending spree and within a year or two, fall into a huge deficit. We should not today, nor tomorrow fall into that trap.
I take this opportunity again, to welcome the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) who will become our new tenants in this building. We are affiliated to the IMF, yet we provide them with office space. Perhaps we should ask them to affiliate to Numsa.
We wish to pay a tribute to our former leaders, Bras Moss, Enoch, Peter, the late Mbuyi, and worker leaders who have made it possible for us to reach this day. Had it not been for their sacrifices, it would not have possible to celebrate our achievements today.
Today is day to celebrate our achievements, re-affirm our commitment to defend the legacy of this Union.
I thank you comrades