The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) plans to apply for a Cape High Court interdict to stop the sale of the Golden Arrow bus company to black empowerment consortium Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) and Mettle Limited for R270-million.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Cosatu’s Western Cape general secretary Tony Ehrenreich upped the ante in a brewing war of words with former trade union leader Marcel Golding, now chairperson of HCI.
”This is a classic case of David versus Goliath or workers competing against a powerful company that owns e.tv and uses it to misrepresent the facts to South Africans,” said Ehrenreich.
Hosken Consolidated Investments owns a 50,2% stake in e.tv, as well as a 49,6% stake in Mettle.
Ehrenreich said the workers of Golden Arrow challenged the bus company to call for offers from the two competing bidders and to put these offers to an arbitrator, who would decide which presented the best value to shareholders.
He said workers from various unions have committed themselves to fight to own Golden Arrow, and promised as part of their bid to provide an ”improved public transport system”.
Ehrenreich emphasised that Golden Arrow workers supported the idea of a cooperative and would seek a meeting with the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) to assure them that there was no conflict within Cosatu.
Sactwu owns a 46% stake in HCI.
Cosatu planned to apply for an urgent Cape High Court interdict to stop the sale from going ahead, as well as to lodge a complaint with the Competition Commission, according to Ehrenreich.
He said Cosatu had also asked the Financial Services Board to investigate the sale, on the grounds that in 1997, R100-million of a R300-million pension fund surplus was ploughed back into the company, which effectively meant that workers had already paid for part of the purchase.
Golden Arrow released details of the bid on Sunday when company director Barry Gie said in a statement that the deal had already been accepted by the Golden Arrow board.
Attempts to reach HCI’s CEO, John Copelyn, for comment proved unsuccessful. — Sapa