Court orders Samwu to reinstate 10

Published Oct 1, 2014

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Cape Town - Ten SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) leaders have won their court bid to be reinstated by the leadership who expelled, suspended or “removed” them for demanding answers about R136 million allegedly missing from union coffers.

Samwu and its president, Sam Malope, its general secretary, Walter Theledi and his deputy, Moses Miya, were ordered by Judge Bashier Vally of the Gauteng Division of the High Court, sitting in Johannesburg, to reinstate the 10 and to pay their legal costs.

Samwu is to appeal against the ruling.

The whistle-blowers, calling themselves Save Our Samwu (SOS), accused Miya, Theledi and Malope, among others, of allowing looting of the union’s financial reserves.

This resulted in the SOS members being “removed”.

In his judgment, Judge Vally gave credence to the allegations of impropriety and misuse of union funds, saying the expelled members had painted a “dire picture” of the union leaders’ conduct as well as the union’s “state of affairs”.

“These respondents (Samwu and its officials) have elected not to take issue with the factual allegations placed before the court by the applicants (the expelled Samwu leaders),” he said

The respondents “are accused of misappropriating millions of rands and when asked by the applicants to account for this they decided to secure the suspension, expulsion or ‘removal’ of each of the applicants”.

Judge Vally said there was “no doubt” that the removals and expulsions by the Samwu national officials were “designed not only to punish the applicants” but also to deter any other members from “raising concerns about the alleged misappropriation of the funds”.

Judge Vally said the union itself as well as its officials - Theledi, Malope and Miya - had shown “callous disregard” for the union’s constitution and had even adopted a “tardy approach” to the litigation against them.

“It is in the public interest that (Samwu and its national officials, namely Malope, Theledi and Miya) be made to account for the funds alleged to have been misappropriated,” the judge said.

“To refuse to grant the relief sought would mean that those calling for accountability are the ones that are punished, and those that are responsible for the alleged misappropriation are allowed to escape scrutiny,” he added.

Dismissed Samwu leader Stephen Faulkner said the applicants in the case would meet their lawyer on Wednesday to discuss the judgment.

He said Judge Vally’s ruling had not included provisions for the reinstatement of Western Cape Samwu secretary André Adams and North West secretary Jacob Modimoeng.

This was because the two provincial secretaries had signed contracts contained in the union’s constitution that subjected the two to Samwu’s “staff disciplinary procedure”.

However, the non-adherence to provisions contained in the union’s constitution would stand in Modimoeng’s and Adams’s favour, Faulkner said.

“We will be meeting with our lawyers today so the judgment can be generally applied to all 87 expelled, dismissed or suspended Samwu members.

“(Our intention) is to make sure the coverage which the judgment provides is applied to all the people affected – including staff members,” Faulkner said.

Political Bureau

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