Samwu not at Cosatu congress, as ‘not in good standing’

The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) will not participate at the Cosatu national congress in Midrand due to its standing in the trade union federation, the union said today.

General secretary Simon Mathe said the union was saddened that for the first time since its formation it would not participate at a Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) congress.

Mathe said the union was informed by a Cosatu task team that as a result of it not being in good standing due to outstanding affiliation fees, Samwu would not be allowed to attend federation’s 13th national congress.

“We need to clarify that there have been a sequence of events which have resulted in us being in the situation which we find ourselves in today. The Samwu national office bearers have on numerous occasions had discussions with Cosatu national office bearers on the state and status of the union within Cosatu,” Mathe said.

“We should stress that this is the first time that an affiliate not in good standing had been prevented from attending a Cosatu congress or meeting because it is not in good standing. Tradition has always been that even though an affiliate is not in good standing, they would be allowed to attend any of the federation’s meetings provided that they have an observer status in such a meeting,” he said.

“We acknowledge the fact that the union is indeed not in good standing within Cosatu, the union’s national office bearers have made several attempts through Cosatu to correct the debt which we have with the federation. We had previously had an agreement that the union would pay an amount of R3 million as settlement for the outstanding debt, an agreement which we honoured.”

Mathe said the union decided not to bulldoze its way into the congress.

“We have taken note of reports that Samwu disrupted the Cosatu national congress, we want to categorically state that our delegation has not set foot at the congress venue given the reasons which had been advanced by Cosatu. We therefore distance ourselves from attempts and acts of disruptions which are alleged to have occurred at the congress venue today.”

The four-day congress is being held in Midrand from today to Thursday.

On its organisational report before congress, Cosatu said a task team was formed to intervene in the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), Samwu and the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu).

Cosatu said Samwu leadership reneged more than once on the decision which were taken with their participation. Some of the decisions were that all suspensions, expulsions and resignations must be withdrawn.

Later the task team adopted an implementation plan which included addressing Samwu members in various provinces.

“Despite having agreed to be part of these work, the Samwu leadership never attended any of these meetings, instead they made it impossible for Cosatu to address Samwu members. The federation was only able to convene meetings and address Samwu leadership in the Eastern Cape and convened a general meeting in Gauteng. But this work could not proceed to other provinces due to non-cooperation by the Samwu leadership,” read the report.

On Ceppwawu, Cosatu said the union had been engulfed by internal organisational challenges for a long time and these challenges have been centred on Ceppwawu investments.

“All Cosatu-led task team interventions were undermined by lack of cooperation.”

The task team found that Satawu had deteriorated because of factional fighting that included the leadership.

In summary all these three unions lost many members, with Satawu alone losing more than 100 000 and Samwu losing more than 30 000 members based on lack of credibility and a lack of trust in leadership.

– African News Agency (ANA)

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