Former political prisoners on Robben Island on Friday called off their hunger strike after the island’s museum director Andre Odendaal resigned on Thursday.
A representative for the group, Bafo Mguqu, told a media briefing on the island that in the light of the latest developments the ex-prisoners, most of them members of the museum staff, had decided to end the sit-in and hunger strike and to take action to another level.
Mguqu did not specify what the action entailed but said they would be meeting with colleagues and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) to ”revisit our strategy and to take our action to another level”.
The former prisoners are demanding a probe into alleged corruption in the museum’s management.
Odendaal handed in a letter of resignation on Thursday, saying he could no longer play an effective or constructive role on the island.
”We need the Robben Island Museum Council to take a firm stand and suspend Odendaal’s deputy Lynette Maart immediately in order for a credible investigation to be launched to uproot corruption on the island,” Mguqu said.
He said the investigation should proceed in spite of Odendaal’s resignation. The council is set to hold a closed meeting in Cape Town at 3pm.
Mguqu said he hoped the investigation would clear Odendaal’s name and that the law should take its course. An investigation into corruption was completed in October last year and a report given to Odendaal, who ”failed to act until we took the matter up”.
”If there is nothing that will make the council suspend these directors, why the sudden resignation of Odendaal,” Mguqu asked.
He said the former prisoners respected Odendaal’s decision to resign and ”we hope his name will be cleared by the investigation”.
”We view it (his resignation) as a way of escaping the fire that is coming behind him. We have noted that it is the culture of Robben Island Museum to run away while there are things that are coming.”
He said the investigation had been initiated by the museum’s second deputy director Denmark Tungwana and not by the museum management team itself. Tungwana had been forced to apologise to Odendaal for taking action.
Nehawu representative Gaby Scheminais said the union had met the Robben Island museum council outlining its concerns on issues between staff and management.
She said the question of financial mismanagement affected the union’s members.
Council chairman Ahmed Kathrada was not immediately available for comment. – Sapa