Re: “Numsa must come clear on bid to realign SA politics” by Imraan Buccus
Published: TimesLIVE, January 10 2026
Dear Editor,
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.
Neither PAT nor I were afforded an opportunity to respond to these characterisations before publication. This would have been consistent with basic journalistic practice and the press code of the Press Council of South Africa. Had we been approached, we would have directed the author to the many public documents available on our website and social media platforms that clarify who we are, our mandate, our funding model, and our accountability structures. Without even a mention of our public profile, we are depicted as a shadowy organisation.
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.
PAT has existed for a decade with an explicit mandate, drawn from people’s movements and organisations across the African continent, to strengthen and unify their efforts to fight for peace, dignity and genuine liberation. We have developed considerable experience in convening programmes that bring together leaders and members of diverse organisations to draw on their experiences, develop common analysis, and work towards common interventions. It is precisely this experience that makes an initiative aimed at working-class unity appropriate, and PAT’s involvement in such work entirely fitting. This work is neither controversial nor conducted in the shadows; its details are publicly available on our website and social media.
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.
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.
Similarly, 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 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.
The initiative in question is not a nefarious conspiracy. It is a necessary political intervention in South Africa that urgently needs to overcome the reality where the working majority is oppressed and exploited by a minority. In the contradiction between amplifying our problems and alleviating them, media institutions such as TimesLIVE and its contributors have a critical and constructive role to play. That role is to clarify, analyse and illuminate — not to advance misinformation and confusion from the sidelines of a country, a continent, and a world in crisis.
I hope that these were genuine errors, that the publication issues a correction, and that future coverage takes a more constructive approach.
• Jonis Ghedi-Alasow is Executive director, Pan Africa Today, NPC
Business Day
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