Johannesburg - The NUM will work at eradicating enemies within the organisation as it tries to build a stronger and more united front, it said on Sunday.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Frans Baleni was speaking to reporters following the union's central committee (CC) meeting on Thursday and Friday.
“The CC concurred that the NUM did have enemies within.... Once you eliminate the enemy within, you are left in a stronger position to deal with external forces,” said Baleni.
He said the union was being attacked to destabilise the Congress of SA Trade Unions, to which it is affiliated.
Baleni said the NUM supported a move to have facilitators assigned to various areas of Cosatu to try and identify internal squabbles.
“It might be grumbling about one affiliate to another, it might be grumbling about leadership of the federation.... This process is to eliminate these.”
Baleni said this was not about targeting individuals, but about turning Cosatu into “an effective machinery” capable of performing its duties.
He said the process could be described as the organisation cleansing itself.
Baleni said the CC had agreed that the NUM was struggling, having lost 37,887 members between February 2012 and the same month this year.
A recruitment strategy was being developed. - Sapa