Cosatu meeting disrupted by 'former' Samwu members

Disgruntled ‘former members’ of the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) have disrupted a central executive committee meeting of Cosatu, in a bid to vent their frustrations towards the trade union federation. But, The Times reports that according to Samwu's spokesperson Papikie Mohale‚ members who disrupted the meeting are not Samwu members in good-standing as they were expelled from the union in March last year. ‘There are no grievances that have been raised by Samwu members in Cosatu so I would assume that whoever is behind this would not be our members. We are for a united Cosatu and we believe that Cosatu should proceed in doing its work. We are looking forward to their central committee and it would not be in our interest to disrupt this meeting as it is sitting now‚’ said Mohale. In February last year‚ about 87 Samwu officials and leaders across the country were either expelled or suspended after they allegedly questioned the missing millions from Samwu coffers. The expelled group accused senior union officials of pocketing about R136m.

Full report in The Times