Re:“Numsa must come clear on bid to realign SA politics” by Imraan Buccus I write with concern regarding an article published by your publication on January 10 by Imraan Buccus, in which both myself and Pan Africa Today (PAT), the organisation I lead, are portrayed as “actors in the shadows” of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa’s) initiative to build working-class unity in South Africa. In the many years that I have read the writings of Imraan Buccus, I have not had the impression that he is an incompetent author. My concern is that the urgency with which this article was produced may have led to reliance on uninformed and unreliable sources — sources he deemed so credible that he set aside basic journalistic practices, such as research and seeking clarification from the article’s subjects.
Had such an engagement occurred, TimesLIVE could have published a well-informed, critical piece that stimulated genuine debate, rather than one that risks misleading readers on a topic of such importance. Several claims in the article require correction. Most significantly, the article attributes to me a document proposing “that the union host a meeting with the unions affiliated to Saftu and Cosatu, along with the senior leadership of the ANC, SACP, MK Party, EFF and Mayibuye, with the aim of uniting all these organisations under the banner of the ANC”.
To be clear: no such document exists. I have never authored any document proposing that organisations unite under the banner of the ANC. Whether the author was misled by AI-generated content, relied on unreliable secondary sources, or drew inferences from documents written by others, I cannot say — but this attribution of a fictional text to me could have been avoided by the simple act of contacting me directly.
Read Full Article on Daily Dispatch
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The insinuation that large sums of funding have been committed to this project appears to be based on the very sources the author himself discredits. I am not aware of the substantial funding commitments suggested in the article The objective of the initiatives in which PAT and I have been invited by Numsa to participate remains: to develop, through dialogue and common initiatives, a minimum programme for working-class unity that centres on the liberation of the oppressed and exploited sections of our society. Whether the ANC participates in such an initiative remains an open question.
I am not aware of the substantial funding commitments suggested in the article. The author is correct that accountability and transparency are important. Much of what appears obscure to him could have been clarified through basic research and direct engagement.
More broadly, accountability must begin within organisations themselves. It should be celebrated, not treated with suspicion, when debates on political direction unfold vigorously within the constitutional structures of organisations. PAT’s role and mandate continue to be developed in dialogue with more than 70 people’s movements and organisations across the African continent, among them Numsa, from whom we derive our existence and to whom we are, in the first instance, accountable.
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