Joburg - The South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) has added its voice to the call recently made by Cosatu for the Minister of Employment and Labour to intervene in the proposed R5 billion Thuja Investment Fund funding proposal.
This comes after Cosatu accused some officials within the department of labour and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) of attempting to enter into a questionable investment deal and ignoring a decision by PIC and the UIF’s bid adjudication committee to decline this investment to Thuja Investment Fund.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Saccawu said it supported Cosatu’s call for the deal to be halted.
“Saccawu supports the call by Cosatu for the department of employment and labour to scrap the questionable investment of R5 billion by UIF to Thuja Investments and calls on current parliamentary oversight bodies to pay tighter scrutiny to UIF and the Compensation Fund.
“Saccawu is equally dismayed by the handling of the two funds (UIF and Compensation Fund) under the auspices of the department of employment and labour.
“In the same vein, Saccawu wishes to commend the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulasi Nxesi, for moving with haste in suspending the purported awarding of a R5bn investment to Thuja Investment,” Saccawu said.
On Friday, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said Cosatu was concerned that this deal was being prepared and approved in spite of damning findings and accusations against Thuja Investment Fund.
“Cosatu is alarmed by further allegations of billions of rand being spent on questionable investments by the UIF at a company called Thuja Investments.
“Reports have surfaced alleging that the UIF is intending to give R5bn to a company that is not registered with the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission nor the South African Revenue Service. Has no history of economic activity, let alone experience or expertise in the field of investment,” Pamla said.
According to Cosatu, Thuja is owned by a “prominent and politically influential person” who also chairs a public entity that falls under the department of employment and labour.
Pamla said it is this conflict of interest that would have made this project a failure and yet another investment scheme gone wrong.
“Cosatu is deeply shocked by the allegations and the general tendency by some in the UIF and the department to play fast and loose with the UIF’s funds.
“Government should remember the state does not contribute a single cent to the UIF. UIF exists to help employees… We will not tolerate its being used as a slush fund for bogus investments by a politically connected elite with no sense of moral bearing,” he said.
Following these allegations by Cosatu and the media, the minister of labour has since put a stop to the proposed investment.
“The minister of employment and labour notes the media reports on the Thuja Capital Fun Project. This is a project under the Labour Activation Programme, run by the UIF together with some partners.
“I have since instructed the director-general of the Department of Employment and Labour and the UIF Commissioner to suspend this project pending a full report on all the matters that are raised about it in media reports and related matters,” the minister said on Sunday.
The Star