Hazel Friedman and Janet MacPherson
Pact unions have produced evidence suggesting that two of their representatives were involved in a sweetheart deal with Pact management to sell their comrades down the river.
The Mail & Guardian is in possession of a cheque for R15 000 made out by Pact’s legal advisors to one of two union negotiatiors from the Paper, Printing and Allied Workers Union (Ppawu) who agreed to a deal which lost their membership R2-million in court-ordered backpay.
The names of both unionists are known to the M&G, but for ethical reasons their names are being withheld until Ppawu has completed its investigations into the matter.
The deal in question brought to an end a protracted labour dispute which had raged since late 1990, when Pact summarily dismissed 299 workers after Ppawu declared a dispute with management.
The following year the dispute was taken to the Industrial Court, which ordered the unconditional reinstatement of the entire workforce with backpay amounting to R4 661 481.
Dissatisfied with the outcome, Pact management – under the leadership of then CEO Louis Bezuidenhout -took the case to the Supreme Court, the Appeal Court and the Judge President, where the original judgment was duly upheld.
But after “negotiations” with Pact’s legal representatives, labour lawyersJan Nel and Johan La Grange, two union representatives agreed to forfeit just under R2-million on behalf of their members – supposedly to offset earnings during the period of the dispute.
But on September 1 1994, one of them cashed a cheque for R15 000 signed by Jan Nel on behalf of the law firm Nel and La Grange. According to Twala, this was one of two similar cheques which came into the possession of the union. The other – for R25 000 – subsequently disappeared.
According to Twala the existence of the cheques was revealed after he and other unionists, including the recipient of the cheque, approached Bezuidenhout to protest the settlement deal that had been struck.
“We were angry because instead of being fully compensated for wrongful dismissal in terms of the court ruling, we had been tricked into paying Pact instead,” recalls Twala. “But Bezuidenhout said one of our members had better be careful, because he had something that could damage him. At first he wouldn’t say what it was, but, finally, we learnt about the cheques, and a short while later, they were faxed to us anonymously.” Bezuidenhout denies knowledge of any bribe.