The National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu) is clamping down on an officer who blew the whistle about alleged financial irregularities after the Mail & Guardian reported a range of allegations against it by its treasurer Zayne Marimuthu [Nactu finances questioned].
“I have requested an audience to discuss these matters but my requests have been ignored,” Marimuthu said this week. “I owe my allegiance to the workers and I was acting in their best interests.”
He says he first told the executive of Nactu of his intention to make the matter public in May.
Nactu president Joseph Maqhekeni denied all the allegations and has since summoned Marimuthu to a central committee meeting on Tuesday December 10. “The purpose of the meeting is to discuss your un- becoming conduct,” says the letter summoning Marimuthu.
Marimuthu is accused of, among other things, “jeopardising donor funding for Nactu through reckless statements to the Mail & Guardian“.
By speaking to the M&G, Marimuthu was alleged to be violating a central committee directive to “refrain from his behaviour” and stop writing letters that were “unacceptable to the central committee”. The violation now forms part of the charges.
Marimuthu is further accused of “peddling lies that you do not know about Nactu’s liabilities … and further lying that you refused to be a signatory”.
Marimuthu is also said to have deliberately failed to attend structural meetings to deal with his grievance.
He says he has since February called for a forensic audit of Nactu’s finances. Maqhekeni has responded by demanding an audit of the federation’s affiliate unions first, which Marimuthu has rejected as an attempt to divert attention from Nactu. He has also accused Nactu of frustrating his efforts to obtain financial records and prepare a financial plan for Nactu. Nactu denied the allegation.
Marimuthu. who has been a director of Nactu Investment Holdings (NIH) since November last year and still holds the post, is also accused of misrepresentation by claiming to be an NIH director in 2000.
While holding the director’s post he discovered a loan transfer in 2000 of R15-million that has never been accounted for.
Nactu told the M&G that a transfer of that amount did not occur in 2000. Maqhekeni said Nactu received R5-million, which was used for projects approved by the central committee and was accounted for at last year’s September congress.
However the M&G has in its possession a copy of minutes of an NIH meeting held on November 6 last year in which the matter arose. Two auditors from Deloitte & Touche, Adele Wing Song and Alan Brown, were invited to the meeting to discuss “issues that are of legality”.
The NIH meeting’s minutes state: “The auditors were concerned about the +/-R16-million loan to Nactu. They requested that Nactu accounts on what the money was spent on …” to enable the NIH to account for it.
“[The auditors] also requested that Nactu give an undertaking about when the loan would be repaid,” the minutes state.
Nactu refused to respond to questions from the M&G until after the central committee meeting.
The minutes, and those of a subsequent meeting, also show various questionable financial dealings undertaken by the federation’s general secretary Cunningham Ngcukana.
Ngcukana has charged Marimuthu with “sabotaging efforts to get money to deal with problems of Nactu through subterfuge … and scheming that Nactu should not receive funds”.
Marimuthu maintains that the only reason he blocked money flowing to Nactu was to allow the federation to assess the state of its finances.
One major transaction that was questioned in the minutes was Ngcukana’s investment in The Enquirer, a weekly newspaper that closed after a few weeks. Ngcukana said he acquired a stake in the newspaper hoping to finance it by selling shares in Blue Dot, the NIH’s micro-lending subsidiary.
Ngcukana then requested and obtained R100 000 from the NIH’s chief executive officer Thoko Obisanya to invest in the newspaper.
Obisanya was rapped over the knuckles for granting the funds without the board’s approval.
Ngcukana demanded a payment of R170 000 because he said he had to use his house as security to make the initial investment. The board declared its dissatisfaction with Ngcukana’s actions, saying it was not their responsibility.
Ngcukana did not respond to calls from the M&G.
Related
Nactu finances questioned 29 November 2002