Marcel Golding, who joined Cyril Ramaphosa as deputy general secretary, talked about how important it was for the union to deliver in redemptive terms as well as in practical terms. The union led by producing new ‘selves’ (in Foucault's terms), forming trade unionists. This involved intense educational work on the meaning of unionism and productive leadership with tactical skills. It was crucially important to listen to what the workers themselves had to say. Golding told me: ‘Never, ever, just take the liberty of deciding for them. They must decide what to do on their own and I think that was one of the good things we learned. That mine-workers were not fools. They knew what they wanted despite [low] levels of education.’

First of all and I am proud about NUM is that it has become the school of [the] working class but also the school of prosperity. Because these people you are talking about all come from NUM. Now one of the key decisions of NUM was leadership development, was to build leadership. Somewhere in 1986, 1987, 1988, NUM sent a number of people to Cuba to study as engineers because they did not have those opportunities here … And they came back and some of them are in the mines. But on the other side we also built people politically … In NUM we have got a particular way of nurturing the talent in leadership skills and I think so far we have done very well.

NUM can develop a person; when I joined NUM I had no matric but through the exposure in the union, I completed matric through correspondence; I went to university through correspondence; I have got a degree today through NUM …