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1 September, 2010The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Union (SATU) have discussed a long term cooperation agreement under which NUMSA will provide union building support to SATU through its Mpumalanga regional structures. Developing solidarity between the two unions makes sense as many companies operating in Swaziland are South African managed and controlled.
Swaziland: The meeting took place in August at the end of a recent induction course for new SATU shop stewards in Manzini supported by NUMSA. The NUMSA delegation was led NUMSA second deputy president and IMF executive committee member, Comrade Christina Olivier and the SATU delegation was led by its President Comrade Elias Mabuza.
SATU has structures in place but further development is needed, especially of shop stewards, for these structures to function effectively. Under the so called 'twining' program, NUMSA will involve SATU in its regional activities in Mpumalanga, sharing resources and skills.
In addition to benefiting from educational programmes, SATU shop stewards will participate in an exchange programme to gain practical skills in organising. Capacity building will also be offered to SATU leadership in areas like administration and financial skills.
Initiatives will also incorporate the exchange of experiences by both unions, as a learning tool and to foster better understanding of each other. SATU will also be able to observe NUMSA constitutional meetings and learn from the debating methods and problem solving techniques applied and NUMSA will also participate in SATU structural meetings.
The IMF will play an overall coordination role of the twining program. Whilst both unions will be working closely together, it must be noted that this is not a merger of SATU into NUMSA's Mpumalanga regional structures. Both unions will remain independent with separate structures.