A commission of inquiry last week found that the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) is “deeply divided”, and “polarised” between factions alleged to be anti-African National Congress and anti-South African Communist Party.
Nehawu is the country’s second-largest trade union and is politically powerful because its members run the civil service.
The inquiry also found that more than R12-million of the union’s expenses in 2000 were unaccounted for and found allegations of ghost workers on Nehawu’s payroll to be “credible”.
A report by the union’s mother body, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), earlier this year said the union was running at a deficit of more than R10-million at the end of 2001.
Cosatu instituted the inquiry last year to investigate financial and political problems in Nehawu.
The commission of inquiry consisted of Cosatu national office-bearers, National Union of Mine-workers’ president Senzeni Zokwana and Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union general secretary Ebrahim Patel. They reported their hard-hitting findings to the federation’s central executive committee last week.
The inquiry has called for measures to sort out the problems. These include financial management skills, an “organisational renewal” strategy and for Cosatu organising secretary Mncedisi Nontsele to be seconded to Nehawu until its conference next year. The measures should ensure “a deeper level of participation to avoid the falling back to the old suspicions”, Cosatu said.
Labour insiders said the commission had also called for an investigation into allegations that Nehawu president Vusi Nhlapo had made investments in privatisation initiatives, which would be contrary to Nehawu and Cosatu policy.
Union insiders said the inquiry found that one faction centred on Nhlapo, who is perceived to be close to the government and the ANC. The other is reportedly centred on general secretary Fikile “Slovo” Majola, a prominent SACP member.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven however said the Mail & Guardian was “over-simplifying” the issues.
“The Commission did note that there were some differences of opinion within Nehawu but that is true of many unions. But the commission did not find the sort of crude polarisation around a few slogans,” said Craven.
Tensions have been simmering in the alliance as the ANC and the SACP compete for workers’ support. Cosatu projects the SACP as the vanguard of the working class.
The inquiry did not spell out which faction was perceived to be anti-ANC, but it said both claimed to belong to the ANC and SACP traditions. Union insiders said Nhlapo was believed to oppose the SACP. At its special congress in 1999, the ANC backed Nhlapo as Cosatu president.
Union insiders said the commission’s report refers to a Nehawu central executive committee meeting in 2002, where Nhlapo rejected a decision to set up a political fund to support the SACP. He said that if the fund was set up, the union would be funding the United Democratic Movement next.
The insiders said the commission uncovered accusations that one faction was trying to turn Nehawu into a “sweetheart union” and that the other had been labelled “ultra-leftist and socialist”.
A Cosatu central executive committee member said the inquiry had traced the origin of the tension between Nhlapo and the Nehawu secretariat to the election of the union’s office-bearers at the 1998 congress.
“There was debate at the time whether Nhlapo was a member of good standing. The union never confronted the issue,” the member said.
Nhlapo has been Nehawu’s president since 1994. The union’s constitution requires the president to be an employee, but Nhlapo allegedly lost his 10-year job as a laboratory assistant at the University of the Witwatersrand in December 1993. The inquiry could not establish if Nhlapo had been employed after 1993. His
current agreement with Wits proved problematic. The university pays Nhlapo’s employment costs but is reimbursed by the union.
A union official said the commission reported that “technically, a full-time president who is paid through subscriptions is not a worker”. The inquiry could not make a conclusive finding about Nhlapo’s status.
An insider said the commission found that the tension between the Nhlapo and Majola factions arose because the Nehawu president “was bitter towards the secretariat of Nehawu on his failure to win the Cosatu president’s position at the federation’s special congress in 1999”.
The commission also uncovered other non-political reasons for divisions and paranoia among the union’s leaders.
Members of one faction believed that security measures at the office and for the office-bearers were linked to the National Intelligence Agency. Three security personnel are attached to Nhlapo. “The commission found that the faction believes its computers, office phones and cellphones are bugged,” one staffer said.
The inquiry found that the union had bought Nhlapo a top-of-the-range Volvo but cheaper cars for the other office-bearers. Nhlapo was being paid a R10 000-a-month honorarium, the other office-bearers were not.
The commission hired Deloitte & Touche to analyse Nehawu’s finances. The auditors found irregularities, including unaccounted expenditure of more than R12-million. The auditors also found the union had contravened accepted accounting practices, principles and procedures.
It also found that the union was not generating revenue but using its cash holdings, which had dropped from more than R14-million in 1997 to about R3-million in 2001.
Cosatu said last week an exit plan should be developed for the leadership. This would include ensuring that leaders are redeployed elsewhere within the trade union movement or outside to avoid overstaying their welcome.