THE National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) has notified the government it wants to sue for damages suffered in sinister security police operations to defraud it, and possibly other trade unions, of large amounts of money during the apartheid years.
Preliminary details of the scam first surfaced during an investigation into the 1991 murder of Janine Bellingan, wife of then security policeman Michael Bellingan.
At first sight the case appeared to be an open-and-shut family drama, but a bag of bloodied clothing and documentation discovered shortly after her death, brought a twist to the investigation. She started collecting evidence on his alleged diversion of cheques destined for Numsa to bank accounts opened in the name of Nicholas Umsa.
While it is not clear to what extent Michael Bellingan had allegedly acted to line his own pocket or as part of a larger security police (later Crime Intelligence Service) operation, false passports and credit cards Bellingan allegedly used in the scam suggest he had at least the logistic support of his special branch colleagues.
Bellingan denied the scam during the inquest, but said it was “quite possible” trade union money had been diverted — and justified the type of operation as “commendable”.
Investigators, legal sources and intelligence sources believe the scam went well beyond just a few individuals acting on their own. Stratcom, a nationwide security police operation that reported directly to the State Security Council, is said to have run operations to injure and sow internal confusion among “enemies of the state”.
Among other activities, Stratcom operatives are said to have intercepted mail at Jeppe post office in Johannesburg. The contents were sometimes substituted; sometimes cheques were intercepted. Sources said it appeared Bellingan had been linked to Stratcom.
Former Numsa general secretary Bernie Fanaroff said this week the ministries of Safety and Security and Post and Telecommunications had been notified of Numsa’s intention to sue for damages. He said Post and Telecommunications was seen by the union as an accomplice in a “conspiracy to steal”, as post office staff had been party to the security police operations.
But “because we did not have a tight enough administration we could not quantify the loss”.
Fanaroff said companies often queried the union on cheques not acknowledged. Membership fees sent from branches, cheques from companies and donations from abroad went missing.
He said other unions seemed similarly targeted and the fraud seemed to have spanned a period from the 1970s possibly into the 1990s. The National Union of Mineworkers (Num) revealed last year it had been victim of similar fraud.