South Africa’s biggest trade union is in open revolt. A rebel faction of its Central Committee says it has moved against General Secretary Irvin Jim, accusing him of violating the constitution, threatening regional leaders, and failing to account for luxury assets – including an armoured vehicle and a costly penthouse – that do not appear on the union’s books.
The breakaway group, which claims to represent seven regions and more than 200,000 members, says Jim and other national office bearers defied a Labour Court order to convene and then abandoned the meeting, forcing worker leaders to step in and take control.
In a amedia statement issued after a three-day meeting at Kopanong Hotel from 23 to 25 October 2026, the breakaway CC – which claims to represent more than 200,000 members from seven regions – says Jim and the National Office Bearers have abandoned their posts after defying a Labour Court order.
The meeting itself is the subject of a fierce legal dispute. On 22 October 2026, Judge Tlhotlhalemaje in the Johannesburg Labour Court (case no. 2026-242651) ordered the NOBs to convene the CC with its full membership as a resumption of the adjourned August meeting, and interdicted them from excluding the Mpumalanga delegation.
The court found that the President, “on his own or with the General Secretary, had usurped the powers of the CC, acted ultra vires, and put the cart before the horse”, and that such conduct “amounts to self-help.”
According to the statement, “within hours of that judgment, the General Secretary purported to cancel the Central Committee, and the President confirmed the cancellation the next morning, claiming that an application for leave to appeal had suspended the Court’s order. It has not.”
The rebels argue that under section 18(2) of the Superior Courts Act, interim relief does not suspend on appeal. They say the NOBs’ own appeal notice concedes the CC’s “composition and quorum are to remain intact.”
Despite the cancellation, 27 CC members from seven regions – Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Hlanganani, Sedibeng and JC Bezuidenhout – met anyway. Under Chapter 9(3)(b) of the NUMSA Constitution, they claim, delegates present at an adjourned meeting constitute quorum.
The statement accuses the GS of a pattern of collapsing meetings that are not in his favour – December 2024 Extended NEC, August 2026 CC, and now October 2026 – and of “disrespecting the central committee and the president by refusing to summarize the resolution of the meeting.”
It goes further: “his unbecoming conduct of physically threatening to assault regional leadership” in the April 2026 Special CC.
The rebel CC has now moved to strip Jim and the NOBs of power. It says it has constituted a Task Coordinating Team (TCT) to run the union, naming veteran militants Silumko Nondwangu and Karl Cloete as members based on “competence, track record, quality and contribution to constitutional compliance.”
“The powers of the current National Office Bearers are withdrawn pending the decision of the National Executive Committee on their conduct. Their conduct has, in effect, amounted to a removal of themselves from their duties,” the statement says.
The document also takes a direct swipe at NUMSA President Andrew Chirwa over a statement he allegedly made about Jim’s luxury lifestyle.
“The Central Committee distances itself from the statement issued by the President on behalf of the Union, and reported in the media, concerning the armoured vehicle allegedly used by the General Secretary and the expensive penthouse he allegedly owns,” it reads.
“These assets are not registered in the name of the Union and do not appear among its assets, and no meeting of the Central Committee has ever considered, approved or received a report on them. The President had no mandate to speak for the Union on them.”
It is a devastating paragraph – it both disavows Chirwa and confirms that the allegations about Jim’s armoured car and penthouse are now officially on the CC record, with no accounting.
The rebels also reversed the dismissal of Sedibeng Regional Secretary Kabelo Ramokhathali, calling his firing by Jim “null and void, unconstitutional and unlawful” because only an REC and NEC can discipline an elected official.
“Comrade Ramokhathali is directed to report for duty with immediate effect,” they ordered.
On litigation, the CC accused Jim of launching court cases in NUMSA’s name without authority, saying the only authorised case was the Road Accident Fund litigation from February 2025. Everything else, it says, violates Chapter 6(2)(d)(viii) which requires CC approval case by case.
The statement orders all outstanding Regional Congresses by 15 November 2026 and confirms the 12th National Congress for 30 November to 4 December 2026, noting that the four-year term of NOBs expired in July 2026.
“The National Office Bearers walked out… and did not attend. When NUMSA faced a crisis of leadership in the late 1990s, its worker leaders rose to defend the Union. Today, worker leaders are again rising to fill the vacuum,” the statement says.
NUMSA’s national office had not responded at the time of publication.