Unions are going out of business, presenting the ANC with a political and economic dilemma.

Looking at the reasons for the split of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) from Cosatu, it is important to distinguish between the apparent cause and the real cause of the division.

For some years now, Numsa members have refused to wear National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) T-shirts, based on an acrimonious dispute about which union should by rights organise Eskom workers. After the collapse of NUM membership to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union in the Rustenburg platinum belt, Numsa officials believed they should be better represented in Cosatu’s leadership than the suddenly diminished NUM.

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