Unions pay tribute to former Numsa president Cedric Gina

The death of veteran unionist Cedric Gina has come as a shock in labour and political circles.

Gina, who was a former president of the continent’s biggest union, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), and later the founding general secretary of the Liberated Metalworkers Union of SA (Limusa), died on Monday in Durban’s Addington Hospital after a short illness.

He was instrumental to Numsa’s growth after he was elected to the helm in 2008.

He resigned from the organisation when the showdown with the union’s mother body, Cosatu, got heated in 2013.

Numsa was expelled from Cosatu in 2014 for expanding its organisational scope and not supporting the federation’s alliance partner, the ANC, in the national elections.

Gina was charged with forming a metalworkers’ union within Cosatu, though Limusa failed to gain traction and has had fewer than 10,000 members since its inception.

On Monday, the union federation described Gina as a political activist who dedicated his life to serving workers.

He started his unionist career in 1993 when he was elected a shop steward at Numsa. “He dedicated his entire life to liberating the working-class people from the shackles of exploitation. We all owe him for his sacrifices and commitment.

“His untimely death has created a vacuum in the workingclass leadership and we will miss his passion and easygoing manner,” Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said.

At the time of his death, Gina had no political portfolio.

He was voted out of Limusa in December following squab-strengthening bles over the control of the small organisation.

“Cedric has dedicated most of his life to the working-class struggle and the labour movement in particular.

“Cedric was an embodiment of our alliance and was active and served a structure of the SACP and the ANC,” Limusa general secretary Siboniso Mdletshe said.

The SACP said Gina would be remembered for his commitment to building and Cosatu, even during its most trying times.

The trying times it was referring to was when the federation almost split in two amid a leadership fallout that saw its former general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, being expelled.

“He stood for the unity of workers in general and within the umbrella of Cosatu in particular and opposed the division of the federation with the full understanding that competition between and among workers can only serve the interests of the exploiters, the bourgeoisie,” the SACP said.

Cosatu’s biggest affiliate, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, said Gina’s death was a “huge loss which prompts us to redouble our efforts in waging the war he passed on fighting for”.