A document leaked to the Mail, alleging misuse of funds, caused a stir at the Cosatu congress, reports Drew Forrest
FURIOUS Cosatu leaders are alleging a disinformation campaign aimed at smearing them and influencing the Cosatu congress after the leak of a confidential financial report to the Mail.
The report points to misuse of money earmarked for a R374 000 security operation to protect Cosatu office-bearers and offices in the wake of last years assassination of Chris Hani. Cosatu denies any improper use of the funds.
The leaked document reveals that a total of R93 528 was spent on construction work at the Troyeville, Johannesburg, home of former general secretary Jay Naidoo and
R59894 on the house of current general secretary Sam Shilowa. In addition, R10 000 was paid to a company called Just Tiling and Home Improvers for work on the house of treasurer Ronald Mofokeng.
This week Cosatu leaders declined to detail how the money was spent as this would pose a security risk. But they did say the federation executive had resolved that if the houses were sold, the added value should be repaid to the federation.
A number of payents relate to vehicles and do not appear to be security-related — for example, R1 953 was paid in November last year for the cost of towing and repairs to Shilowas car and a further R5 509 to Western Refinishers for panel-beating and spray-painting. A further R4 754 was paid to Auto Bavaria for repairs to a vehicle damaged in an accident with an office-bearers vehicle.
Cosatu representatives said these payments were authorised because ordinary Cosatu funds could not be used to pay for damage to cars used for security, when drivers might have to respond to emergency situations.
In an address to 1 700 delegates on the first day of the congress in Johannesburg, Cosatu president John Gomomo attacked unnamed elements in the federation for pursuing personal agendas by leaking material to the press, adding: When we catch these jackals, well dismiss them.
And in an unusual interview granted to the WM&G by five of the Cosatu top brass — Gomomo, Shilowa, his assistant Zwelinzima Vavi, Mofokeng and vice- president Connie September — September said the document had been stolen.
Cosatu leaders believe that a political agenda underlies the leaking of the report just before the congress, when new office-bearers are to be elected. It is known that there is unhappiness in some Cosatu quarters with the closeness of certain leadership figures, notably Shilowa, with the ANC and the South African Communist Party.
The leaked document, sent in a brown envelope, gives details of a foreign-funded security operation mounted by the federation to protect its personnel around the time Hani was assassinated in April last year.
Cosatu says expenditure was overseen by a subcommittee of the central executive committee (CEC) and that all the spending — raised from Dutch-Nordic donors as a special allocation — can be accounted for.
The document is almost certain to be raised when Cosatus finances are debated at the congress on Friday.
Motivating the huge security operation, a memorandum by the security committee last year warns of the dramatic worsening in attacks on anti-apartheid political leaders, including Hani, and of the increasing militancy of the far- rightwing.
In August 1992, it says, cars with false number plates carrying suspicious characters were seen outside Naidoos house. In the same period his wife, Lucie Page, saw two AK47-wielding intruders on their property. In May 1993, Cosatu treasurer Ronald Mofokengs vehicle was fired on.
The memo calls for six full-time bodyguards for Naidoo and Shilowa, a further nine guards to work on a rotation basis and six part-time guards to be stationed at Cosatu offices. It also calls for vehicles and car phones.
Asked whether the security operation had been scaled down, Shilowa would only say Cosatu was having another look at security measures.