Zuma must go to jail if found guilty – Numsa

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA is calling for President Jacob Zuma to face the 783 charges brought against him by the National Prosecuting Authority in 2007.

Re-elected union secretary Irvin Jim said the conference had resolved that Zuma should face the charges and be sent to jail if found guilty.

He was presenting the resolutions of the union’s 10th conference held this week in Cape Town.

American actor and political activist Danny Glover was scheduled to speak at the conference.

Glover is known for his leading role as Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series as well as The Color Purple, To Sleep with Anger (1990), and Angels in the Outfield.

In April, the North Gauteng High Court ruled that the 783 fraud‚ racketeering and corruption charges against Zuma should be reinstated after an application was launched by the DA. Zuma is still appealing against the decision. Numsa has also rejected the proposed national minimum wage of R3 500.

“We denounce with contempt the current minimum wage of R3 500 put forward at Nedlac by Cyril Ramaphosa as a modern-day slavery wage that does not come close to the R12 500 which Marikana workers were massacred for‚” Jim said.

He said the proposed amount had been their demand long ago and material conditions had drastically changed since then.

“Congress agreed to campaign against this poverty minimum wage‚ and to adopt R12 500 as a minimum wage in South Africa‚ in honour of the Marikana workers‚ and that any minimum wage should be in terms of real inflation and the prevailing high inequality that exists in our country‚” he said.

Numsa also vowed to fight for gender equality.