The truth shall set you free On 4/1/12, VC <[email protected]> wrote: > > City Press > > > *Tolls: Cosatu cashes in* > > > *Mandy Rossouw and Sabelo Ndlangisa, City Press, Johannesburg, 1 April > 2012* > > Trade union federation Cosatu, an outspoken critic of toll roads, > 貞ecretly benefits from a construction company involved in building new > highways. > > City Press can reveal that 耶osatu's investment arm, Kopano Ke Matla, > has shares in Raubex, a construction company that won a tender to build > one of Gauteng's highways that are now being tolled to pay for the > construction. > > Kopano benefited from the building of the R21, which forms part of the > Gauteng Freeway 背mprovement Project. > > Raubex received R800 million for the project, which meant 胛opano cashed > in R24 million due to its shareholding of 3% in the construction company. > > Raubex also bid for the second phase of the project as well as the N1/N2 > Winelands toll roads in the Western Cape. > > Raubex lost out on both bids. > > The non-executive chairperson of Raubex, Collin Matjila, is also the > chief executive of 胛opano Ke Matla. > > The Winelands bid was won by a consortium that included Group Five and > Basil Read, but stalled due to provincial government 觔bjections to the > project. > > Kopano was also in partnership with Basil Read to build Cosmo City, a > mixed-income suburb in 胡ohannesburg. > > Basil Read won a chunk of the R20?billion Gauteng Freeway 背mprovement > Project after a consortium the company led won two portions of the > project totalling R1.7 billion. > > This week Cosatu had a meeting with the ANC after emotions about > e-tolling reached boiling point. > > Both parties refused to speak about the meeting, but City Press has > learnt that Cosatu general 貞ecretary Zwelinzima Vavi was confronted > with information about Cosatu's involvement in 負olling. > > "Vavi almost shat in his pants when he was told. The ANC simply said > 'why are you against e-tolling' and showed him the papers," said a > source with knowledge of the meeting. > > Since the meeting, Cosatu has not said a word about tolling. In a joint > statement, the two parties said: "Papers presented at the meeting and > discussions that 苟nsued will not be made public." > > Vavi told City Press he was 赴naware of the investment company's > involvement in toll roads. > > "That was only brought to our 苔ttention in the meeting with the ANC. We > were not aware of that. When we checked, we established that they didn't > win the contract. We are not beneficiaries and we, accordingly, asked > Kopano to withdraw any further attempts to bid for any of the contracts > related to the privatisation of the roads." > > He said Kopano operates at arm's length from Cosatu, saying it reported > to its board of directors, which included members of 負rade union > federation Cosatu's central executive 苞ommittee. > > "You know the nature of investment companies is that you don't control > them every day. You don't know in fact what they are doing unless there > is something big, which we will automatically come to know about." > > He said they had issued an 虹nstruction to Kopano not to get 虹nvolved > in social services such as water and electricity, which should be > controlled by the state, as doing so compromised Cosatu's > anti計rivatisation stance. > > "In the case of the Gauteng 胚reeway 背mprovement Project, you would > have thought it is 要aivete to think this is not privatisation. It is > privatisation. That's why we are asking them to move out." > > He denied any knowledge of the Western Cape bid, but said the same > principle applied irrespective of the province in which 胛opano did > business. > > On its website, Kopano bragged about being a "major shareholder in > JSE-listed company Raubex Holdings". > > In its 2006 secretariat report, Cosatu said: "Kopano continues to > operate within the vision of pursuing investment opportunities in a > socially responsible manner that will generate income, and directly and > indirectly contribute to the empowerment of workers and their communities." > > - City Press > > *From: > http://www.citypress.co.za/SouthAfrica/News/Tolls-Cosatu-cashes-in-20120401* > > ** > ** > ** > > -- > You are subscribed. This footer can help you. > Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to > this message. > You can visit the group WEB SITE at > http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery > options, pages, files and membership. > To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . > You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to > put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to > this address (repeat): [email protected] . >
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