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'New union a cash cow for leaders' Amy Musgrave, The Star, Johannesburg, 9 December 2014 COSATU president S'dumo Dlamini went for the jugular on Monday, claiming a new public sector union has been formed as a moneymaker for its leaders. Dlamini, who was speaking at a meeting of the country's largest public sector union, the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU), questioned why it was easy for leaders "who have stolen workers' money" to form new unions. While Dlamini did not mention names, he was referring to Thobile Ntola, the former SA Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) president, who is the national convener for the newly formed SA Public Service Union. "This person was found guilty for having stolen workers' money but still has the guts to go out with a straight face to mobilise workers with an intention to form a union," Dlamini told NEHAWU's national executive committee meeting in Boksburg. "We should expose that the underlying intention is not only to form a union - wrong as that may be - but to establish another cash cow as a way of maintaining a lavish lifestyle, which for a long time has been done through workers' money." Ntola was expelled from SADTU after being accused of using his position for personal financial gain, including being paid an allowance by a service provider to the union. He continues to maintain his innocence. Corruption is widespread in unions in COSATU, with many leaders being accused by their opponents of using their positions to line their pockets. They include the SA Municipal Workers Union, the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union, and the Chemical Energy Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union. COSATU's leadership has not condemned these leaders, at least not in public. Dlamini implied that Ntola was being used as part of a strategy to weaken COSATU, which also included drying up the federation's resources through legal action. The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (NUMSA), which was expelled from COSATU, and its allies are planning many court cases against the federation. They include applications to get NUMSA reinstated and forcing COSATU to hold a special national congress, which could result in the election of new leaders. "The other line of attack. is to have COSATU preoccupied with court cases as a way of stretching its resources and to have it appear paralysed. It will not work," Dlamini said. The special congress has been tentatively set down by Dlamini from July 13 to 16. But eight of COSATU's 18 affiliates and NUMSA want it to take place by March at the latest. Dlamini suggested that NUMSA should use its money for other purposes. "Should this money not be used for something which will benefit workers? Or should NUMSA's leadership not use this money for convening its special national congress to review its 2013 special national congress resolutions which are opposition to COSATU policy?" he asked. NUMSA was expelled for a number of reasons, the most serious being that it was allegedly "poaching" members from other unions. Dlamini reiterated that NUMSA had been in the wrong, and said any political process which could result in its return would not see COSATU giving up on its founding principles, including one union for one industry. The Star From: http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/new-union-a-cash-cow-for-leaders-1.179267 1#.VIa0NDGUeD8 -- -- 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] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
