The National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) has been accused of gross financial mismanagement by one of its top officials, who intends to take legal steps to ensure that the federation gets its finances in order.
Nactu, the country’s third-largest union federation, has 350 000 members. The largest of its unions are the Building, Construction and Allied Workers’ Union, the South African Chemical Workers’ Union and the National Public Service Workers’ Union.
Zayne Marimuthu, the federation’s acting national treasurer since April, has accused it of frustrating his efforts to produce a financial plan. He intends approaching the auditor general, public protector and the Scorpions to investigate the federation’s finances.
Marimuthu was elected deputy treasurer at a congress last September. The then treasurer, Boas Mashele, left and Marimuthu assumed the post in April.
He had called for a forensic audit of Nactu since February, but last weekend was told in a letter written after a meeting of the central committee that “no investigation of Nactu will be undertaken without the approval by the structure of Nactu [sic]”.
The central committee instructed Marimuthu to “refrain from [his] behaviour” of writing letter deemed “unacceptable to the central committee”. He was instructed to submit his request as an agenda item for a scheduled meeting.
Joseph Maqhekeni, the federation’s president, has denied all allegations of financial impropriety levelled against Nactu.
In a letter to Marimuthu, Maqhekeni says Stella Motsai, the union’s vice-president for finance, also requested a forensic audit of the union’s finances, but did not attend a meeting on June 28 where the matter was to have been discussed. Motsai refused to comment.
Correspondence between Mari-muthu and Maqhekeni reveals sharp differences and mounting tension between the treasurer and the president.
In a letter dated November 14 Maqhekeni told Marimuthu that a forensic audit of the Nactu’s 22 affiliated unions would have to be undertaken before that of the federation. But Marimuthu rejected the plan: “The affiliates are not in question in terms of the way Nactu is financially managed.”
Marimuthu said he witnessed a transfer of R15-million to Nactu in 2000 while he was an executive director of Nactu Investment Holdings. This has not been accounted for and the investment arm has been advised to write the amount off as a donation.
“Nactu has never received any R15-million two years ago but R5-million,” Maqhekeni told the Mail & Guardian. “The money was for organising projects and other activities approved by the central committee.” He says the money was accounted for at last year’s congress.
In October Marimuthu objected to another transfer of funds from the investment holdings to Nactu. He demanded that the federation’s office bearers meet to assess Nactu’s liabilities before any transfers were undertaken. He also refused to become a signatory for the union’s cheques.
Marimuthu said the federation used R4-million from the Nactu Trust to clear debt. Money in the trust was supposed to be used for bursaries for members’ children’s education.
Nactu denies this transaction and disputes the notion that money in the trust is to be used solely for bursaries.
The treasurer says many other transactions are suspect. He says Nactu is recovering R60 000 used to pay R7 000 a month for a luxury vehicle used privately by an undisclosed individual.
Nactu denies knowledge of the transaction.
The federation denies that it has frustrated Marimuthu’s efforts to compile a financial plan. It maintains that its secretariat provides information that Marimuthu can verify with the auditors and the central committee.
Marimuthu says he cannot access the federation’s financial records. Nactu’s constitution gives the treasurer the power “to oversee all the financial affairs of the federation” and “to demand and receive information and verify all expenses and income of the federation”.
Marimuthu says that even as treasurer he has no knowledge of the state of the federation’s finances.
Nactu refused to disclose any information on its financial position: “The information … is for the central committee and other structures of Nactu [and] not non-members.”