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Johannesburg - A document was being circulated that formed part of a plan to destroy the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the union claimed on Wednesday.
Deputy general secretary Karl Cloete said: "We have no doubt that the circulation of this document and its nefarious accusations is part of a well-orchestrated plan to destroy Numsa and to deter Numsa from its chosen path,"
The document is titled "Exposed: Secret Regime Change Plot to Distabilize [sic] South Africa".
"We also have no doubt that prompting all these dastardly and desperate acts are our December 2013 special national congress resolutions."
Intelligence structures
Cloete was addressing the media on the document which he said was released in the past 10 days. It apparently implicates himself, Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim, former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and former president Thabo Mbeki's brother Moeletsi Mbeki in a plot to destabilise the country.
According to the document strategies included instigating widespread violence, land grabs and instability, as well as the establishment of intelligence structures in collaboration with foreign governments and international companies.
Destabilising the mining sector, the formation of a political party the United Front and the recruitment of other political parties to support the regime change agenda, were among the other claims made against Numsa in the document.
Now that Numsa's resolutions were finding traction, there was panic, Cloete said.
Organisation is in trouble
"Even the president of the ANC Jacob Zuma had to admit at the aborted ANC Youth League conference that not only the youth is in crisis but the parent body was in dire straits," he said.
He was referring to a statement Zuma made at the ANCYL consultative conference held in Soweto on Wednesday last week.
Zuma said at the time that the ANC had been shaken and was in trouble.
"The youth league has been shaken but also the mother body has been shaken," he reportedly said at the time.
"We admit that the organisation is in trouble," Zuma said referring to discussions held by the African National Congress's combined national working committee and national executive committee meeting on 25 November.
"I can guarantee you that if everything goes wrong with the ANC, everything will go wrong in this country. There is no doubt about it," Zuma said.
Dirty tricks document
Cloete said on Wednesday the plan to deal with Numsa had many "prongs" which included its expulsion from the Congress of the SA Trade Unions, the delay from the labour department in registering amendments to its constitution and open support for a rival union in sectors Numsa organised in.
"The dirty tricks document is part of this well-orchestrated plan," he said.
"This intervention aims to criminalise and demonise Numsa. The strategy is to cast aspersions on what our agenda is and separate the union's leadership from its base."
He said the accusations in the document were ludicrous and no Numsa member had written the document.
The author of the document, John Carelse, was not a Numsa member, and neither was John Myburg in whose Dropbox the document was lodged.
Unlawful political activity
Cloete said a pattern was emerging and the document was not an isolated event. People, who Numsa suspected were from the State Security Agency, had tried to recruit Numsa shop stewards and activists in the Eastern Cape and Ekurhuleni to spy on the union's activities.
Cloete said Numsa had evidence in affidavits from shop stewards. Numsa was not involved in any unlawful political activity.
"As indicated... the incidents directed at Numsa currently are not isolated. It is not the first time that intelligence operatives are interfering in the exercise of human rights in our country," Cloete said.
"We need a public investigation on the abuse of power by securocrats. The South African Human Rights Commission must do its work."
Numsa will discuss the matter at its central committee meeting, to be held from 8 - 12 December.
