In July last year, the leadership of South Africa’s largest trade union, the National Union of Metalworkers South Africa (NUMSA), suspended 25 of its members, including its deputy president Ruth Ntlokotse. It also placed one of its largest regions (from the Mpumalanga province) under ‘administration’, barring it from participation in an upcoming national Congress, originally set for the end of July.
These decisions were contested by the purged members in South Africa’s Labor Court. Coming from a judicial body known for skewing towards the status quo, the judgment was devastating. Judge Graham Moshoana found himself in the strange position of having to remind the leaders of an organization famed for its democratic militancy that ‘a trade union prevails for the workers and not the leaders of the trade union’.1 He ruled the suspensions unlawful, and interdicted the upcoming Congress.
