Numsa braced for “blood-spattered battle” over massive artisan training project

By Celeste Ganga
21 October 2007

The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) has warned of a bloody fight as it pressed ahead with the launch of an accelerated artisan training programme.

“Numsa in conjunction with Manufacturing Engineering and Related Service Seta (Merseta) and several other metal and engineering companies have unveiled a massive artisan training programme to address the nationwide critical skills shortage in the steel engineering and motor industry,” says Numsa national spokesperson, Mziwakhe Hlangani.

More than 22 major companies, including Mittal Steel, Highveld Steel, Columbus, Dorbyl and Toyota Forklift have agreed to participate in the R70 million pilot project for accelerated artisan skills development.

“The battle against employers who consistently frustrate local artisan training programmes begin in earnest as the country needs more than 60 000 artisans in preparation for the 2010 world soccer games, “says Hlangani..

Hlangani goes on to say that they have won the battle against employers strongly opposed to the recognition of prior learning, particularly in the metal sector, the focus will be on conducting a series of training and bargaining workshops to improve grading structures of metalworkers to align their grades to the required National Qualification Framework (NQF) levels.