Numsa cites Denel’s ‘critical role’ in defence, plans march to save jobs

Trade union the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) will on Friday march to the Ministry of Public Enterprises in Pretoria to "save" state-owned arms manufacturer Denel. 

Denel employees are facing salary cuts as the arms manufacture tries to decrease its debt and become profitable again after posting losses in the 2017/18 financial year. 

Its new board, appointed in April, is also considering selling non-performing assets, and has appointed a panel of forensic investigators to probe procurement irregularities.

"We reject any attempts to privatise Denel and we will fight attempts to impose salary cuts on workers. The fact that Denel has been one of the many victims of so-called state capture should not under-value the critical role this SOE performs for the defence sector," Numsa said in a media statement on Thursday. 

Trade union Solidarity earlier in the week criticised proposals to cut salaries by 20% in an effort to save costs, saying the union's members were "not responsible for the mismanagement and poor management decisions which landed Denel in its current financial conundrum".