Seifsa's war chest

MEIBC

STEEL INDUSTRY WAR

Seifsa is begging its affiliated members for money; they are propping up their war chest to fight SMMEs

 

Dear Seifsa-affiliated employer

 

By now you have probably received a request from Seifsa for an additional legal fund contribution. The reasons they present for this may sound credible, but, before you contribute anything to them, consider this:

• extension of a legally compliant agreement, costs nothing.

• if the required representativity levels are met and the agreement complies with the legislation, there would be no barriers to its extension.

• Seifsa is asking for money because their agreement with NUMSA falls short in these areas.

 

I remember the day in 2010, right at the beginning of us exposing the large scale Industry fraud, when a senior official of Seifsa (he is still there) told me (perhaps threatening me) that Seifsa has set aside R 23 000 000.00 to defend itself against exactly the challenge which commenced that day. It seemed that they must have known that this bomb was about to explode. The fact is that they have spent their R 23 000 000.00, losing each and every matter they were involved in. Should they continue with their attempt to extend their agreement with Numsa, NEASA will inevitably challenge it – and they will lose this round as well.

 

It is every persons’ right to spend his money the way they see fit, even if it is by supporting a lost cause. Therefore, before you pay your hard-earned money to Seifsa, consider the fact that Seifsa requires this money:

 

1. to extend their agreement to employers, all over South Africa, even those who cannot afford it;

2. to extend an agreement even their own members cannot afford;

3. to extend their agreement notwithstanding the fact that:

 

• trading conditions of large- and small business are completely different;

• that the ratio of labour vs turnover for a big business might be as low as 1 percent, while for a small business it might be as high as 60 percent;

• that their unlawful (fraudulent) agreements since 2011 (and before that) has led to many business closures and job losses leading to overall hardship caused by the steady decline of the Industry for many years; and they want to extend this agreement notwithstanding the fact that they no longer have the required representativity to even request the Minister of Labour to extend their agreement, but they are banking on a little help from their cartel partners – Numsa and the Department of Labour.

 

The interests of the 10 000 Steel SMME’s are nowhere on Seifsa’s radar. For them it is about their own short term interests and pleasing Numsa which is the nobles’** biggest nightmare; a nightmare of the nobles’ own making.

 

Seifsa cannot be trusted

Their destructive role in the Industry requires their elimination

 

Since we cannot physically remove them from the Industry, we

 

simply have to organise them into complete oblivion

 

To achieve this, each and every SMME in South Africa has to be involved. Therefore, our plea to Seifsa affiliated employers is this:

 

• please do not fund the further demise of the Steel Industry by feeding the Industry crocodile; and

• by clicking here join us in our pursuit to free this Industry from the most employer hostile dispensation in South Africa, orchestrated by Seifsa.

 

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** I have borrowed the term ‘noble’ from the film Braveheart. In this film William Wallace, a Scottish freedom fighter of the thirteenth century, was murdered by Scottish nobles in their short-sighted endeavour to find favour with the English king. Scotland however, eventually obtained their freedom, Wallace became a Scottish hero and the nobles disappeared from history.

 

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Kind regards

Gerhard Papenfus