Samwu scandal hots up
Samwu finds itself in even deeper trouble after its central executive committee dismissed its deputy general secretary.
|||Johannesburg - Samwu, the country’s largest municipal union, finds itself in even deeper trouble after its central executive committee (CEC) dismissed its deputy general secretary Koena Ramotlou on Wednesday night.
The move comes as police sources confirmed that more arrests were imminent after three top officials, including a former deputy general secretary, were taken into custody on Tuesday.
The union has also since suspended its head of finance.
Most of its CEC members passed a vote of no confidence against Ramotlou, as the fallout over the disappearance of R136 million in union funds claims more casualties.
The Star was informed that union general secretary Walter Theledi was likely to be booted out in the same manner.
Samuel Phaswane, a consultant the union hired and who was given wide powers over its coffers, is in police custody.
While the charge faced by Ramotlou at the CEC was described by sources as an administrative error with no links to finances, Theledi would likely be axed over allegations of financial mismanagement.
A union member, who didn’t want to be named, described the factional battles in the union as “very bad”. The axing of the general secretary and his deputy, it is believed, is not the beginning of a clean-up but rather part of a backlash by a faction supporting the arrested former deputy general secretary.
Police are said to be investigating what has been described as a syndicate operating within Samwu. Apparently a number of officials and leaders committed fraud during the relocation of the union’s head office from Cape Town to Joburg in 2013.
The Star