The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has turned its back on an opportunity to benefit from being involved in a consortium that bought 6,7% of Telkom, the Sunday Times reported this weekend.
The report said other unions affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) cried foul when they were irked by Sadtu’s transgression of a Cosatu policy that forbids union investment in essential services.
The Democratic Alliance welcomed the move on Sunday, saying doing otherwise would have lent legitimacy to the enrichment of African National Congress presidential spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama through the Buffalo Consortium.
The Sunday Times also reported that former communications director general Andile Ngcaba, who now chairs Didata South Africa, could not give details on what his Lion consortium partners would bring to the party, nor what stake each of them would have.
It said he and his friends and associates will eventually hold 70% of Lion’s shares, with the rest going to more broad-based beneficiaries.
The DA said this demonstrates ”that broad-based empowerment has played little or no role in this elite enrichment project”.
”The DA will pose parliamentary questions to establish the value of Mr Ngonyama’s share and the final composition of both components of the Elephant Consortium,” said DA communications spokesperson Dene Smuts.
The Elephant Consortium is jointly headed by Ngcaba and the Women’s Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold), headed by Gloria Seroba.
Earlier this month, Ngcaba said the Elephant Consortium’s 10,1% stake in Telkom would be split between the Lion Consortium, led by himself, and the Buffalo Consortium, led by Wiphold, and a broad-based beneficiary trust.
Thirty percent of the Lion Consortium is made up of broad-based women’s groupings from all nine provinces, the Disability Empowerment Concerns Trust, the University of Fort Hare New History of South Africa Project and the 2000-strong National Independent Telecommunications Organisation, he said.
The remaining 70% is allocated to ”directional value-adding individuals and groupings”, including Ngcaba, Lester Peteni, Mafika Sihlali, Bongani Caga and Dali Tambo.
Ngcaba said the Buffalo Consortium will be led by Wiphold, with 18 000 beneficiaries — including individual women, groups of women and NGOs — through the Wiphold Investment Trust and another 300 000 beneficiaries through the Wiphold NGO Trust.
The women’s chapter of Sadtu had been one of 10 members of Wiphold’s NGO Trust. — Sapa