STATEMENT BY NATIONAL TREASURER, THE DEPUTY GENERAL SECRETARY AND THE FOUR CEPPWAWU REGIONS (PROVINCES) ON ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES AND POLITICAL INTERFERENCE BY THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR
29 July 2015
The National treasurer, the Deputy General Secretary and the democratically-elected leadership of the Chemical Energy Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu), represents the majority of the Regions (provinces), as per our organisational demarcations as stipulated in our constitution, namely, (1) Wits; (2) North-West; (3) Eastern Cape and (4) Western Cape.
We have convened this Media Briefing, to publicly communicate to our structures and broader membership a number of political, organisational, administrative and financial challenges plunging this 16 year-old sleeping Giant of the progressive, democratic, worker-controlled, class orientated, militant, internationalist and anti-capitalist trade union Centre in South Africa.
Ceppwawu militancy and revolutionary character has been held ice-berg and grown cold feet by the current General Secretary Simon Mofokeng, since our last National Congress in 2011. The union has been unable to take forward its mandated positions and campaigns as per the outcomes of our last National Congress in 2011. This has rendered the union not being able to meet its constitutional obligations of providing service to members in all the strategic sectors organised by the union. Over many years, our membership has been dwindling and it has led to score of workers joining or seeking refuge in other rival unions outside of Cosatu.
Ceppwawu has been a backbone in the Federation for years, owing to its strategic location in key and vital sectors of our economy. This sad reality has made this union’s galaxy role to be overshadowed or overtaken by public sectors unions. The union’s founding traditions and values, as a worker-controlled, democratic and accountable union are being flouted and undermined by the current General Secretary Mofokeng. Therefore, we are using this Media Briefing, to rise and intensify the effort, and call on our members who tirelessly pay subscriptions earned through their hard sweat labour – the rightful owners of the union to reclaim back their union from the General Secretary Mofokeng and his autocratic leadership at the helm of the union.
The challenges besieging our union, Ceppwawu, are not immune from the current paralysis faced by fast-fading “if sanity doesn’t prevail” and once beloved Federation of workers – the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Clearly, the unions are now captured by forces that want to sway them away from their core mandate of being champions and defenders of workers at the factory.
This Media Briefing is being convened not to raise false alarms-bells, but to inform our members about the crisis faced by Ceppwawu. We can no longer continue to hide our problems to the public, since history will judge us harshly.
We are taking collective responsibility and ownership of the rotten challenges faced by our union. But we are certain though, that the challenges can be resolved, so that the union can return to its rightful place of being a fighting armament of workers in all our sectors. We are making a public appeal to all workers belonging to Ceppwawu to join us in serving this glorious union from sinking to the gallows of history and forgetfulness.
If we allow this union to cease to exist, the biggest beneficiaries will be the bosses, who continue to take advantage of the vulnerability of our members, since the absence of our union in the many struggles faced by members in the shopfloor. Also beneficiaries will be those hollow individuals who masquerade themselves as workers liberators but then looking at them through an eye of a needle they are mouth liking the spoils coming from workers coffers.
We also aspire that other unions who are facing similar challenges will link arms with us, so that we can tackle the root causes of this crisis that have disturbed many of our unions, and which have left our Federation COSATU in tatters.
Matters that we are to address with our members, the public, all progressive forces and the media are as follows.
- Political Interference by the Minister of labour (the ministry)
- CEPPWAWU Investment Company
- COSATU SNC
1. Unacceptable Political Interference by the Minister
There is a pending application at the Labour Court, Braamfontein, to place our union under Administration, in line with existing Labour Law legislations. The pending application to place the union under Administration is informed by the following reasons;
- Failure to comply with the Labour Relations Act (LRA) Section 98/99/100 [Failure to submit Annual Audited Financial Statements 2010-2014] AND [Failure to comply with the union’s constitution].
We the leadership mandated by the four regions as opposed to deregistration rather support the application by the Registrar Mr. Johan Crouse to place the union under Administration. We believe that this process can restore order and allow the union to account to its members, in line with the union’s constitution and LRA without the intrusion of the current NOB’s whose mandate has exceeded their term of office as the constitution of the union stipulates.
However, we note with serious concern the underhand tactic being used to undermine this application by those in power, particularly at the Ministry of Labour. Already, the Registrar of Labour, Mr. Johan Crouse, has been stripped of his position. This clearly, demonstrated that the Minister of Labour Ms. Mildred Oliphant, due to her close political proximity to a particular faction led by S’dumo Dlamini in Cosatu. Her actions of stripping Mr. Crouse’s power and execution of his work is intended to shield Ceppwawu’ s General Secretary Mofokeng.
We can’t allow such a powerful Office to be bullied in order to undermine and frustrate the legitimate process. We vehemently condemn the Minister of Labour Ms. Oliphant for abusing her position of power for political expediency.
We are not hesitant to embark on the national mass action, to demand her immediate resignation from her current position. In all fairness the Minister’s interference is tantamount to riding roughshod over not just the provisions of the LRA and associated legislations, but also the ILO Conventions governing the independence of unions and their right to be self-governing.
Furthermore, we publicly demand the reinstatement of Mr. Crouse so that the process underway to place Ceppwawu under Administration can be concluded speedily and without any undue political interference or favour. We hold the view that the Registrar has the legitimate powers under Section 103 of the LRA to ensure that the Union placed under Administration based on evidence at his or her disposal.
We are stunned by complete unwillingness of our Federation to intervene in the crisis facing Ceppwawu. Instead Cosatu’s National Office Bearers (NOB’s) have taken sides shield or insulate General Secretary Mofokeng for factional interests. They have effectively abandoned their political oversight mandate in order to retain the voting power in Cosatu’s Central Executive Committee (CEC’s) meeting, thus compromising worker-control and democratic practices of the trade union movement.
The majority of our members are supportive of placing the union under Administration, since they know very well under General Secretary Mofokeng, that the worker’s battle dictum “an injury to one, is an injury to all” has been hijacked and replaced with an “injury to one, is an opportunity for Mofokeng and his ilk to loot”.
In September 2015, the current crop of National Office Bearers will be exactly one year past the time when they should have vacated their positions in favour of a National Elective Congress of the Union. It is however very clear that they have no intention of respecting the Unions Constitution.
Due to these irregularities, to date staff members have not received wage increase for the past four years. Also members subscriptions have not been accounted for whilst workers monies are spent day in day out.
It is for these reasons that the actions of the Minister of Labour are considered completely unjustifiable by all sensible commentators including ourselves. The writing is on the wall that processes towards achieving accountability are frustrated by the minister thus endorsing the malpractices that have so far characterised the activities of the union by certain leaders in CEPPWAWU.
2. On CEPPWAWU INVESTMENT COMPANY matter:
We want to out-rightly dismiss the statements articulated by COSATU President S’dumo Dlamini, the Minister of Labour that the infighting in the union is as a result of CEPPWAWU INVESTMENT Funds.
At issue is the national leadership refusing to abide by the union constitution, in that, key structures of the union are not afforded the respect and space to take decisions on the CI matter. The 4th National Congress of ceppwawu in September 2011 mandated the current leadership to call a special congress that was to discuss the secretariat report, CI matter and general resolutions as proposed by all ceppwawu members in regions. The current leadership who have over-stayed their term of office that lapsed in September 2014, have since failed to call this special national congress whose powers shall have put the matter to rest once and for all as the congress is the supreme decision making structure of the union.
The General Secretary, the president and his deputies have further imposed themselves as trustees in the CEPPWAWU INVESTMENT TRUST without the mandate and authorization of the union national executive structures. There is the current court-case pending to remove these office bearer’s.
3. On COSATU matters
Lastly, this Media Briefing, seats two weeks after the farcical Cosatu Special National Congress (SNC) held from the 13-14 July 2015. This farce of an SNC put a final spanner into the decaying Cosatu works and consolidated the Federation into a conveyor-belt of right-wing and anti-working class policies, point in case voting by show of hands and handpicking of ceppwawu regional delegates unto the COSATU SNC by the General Secretary Simon Mofokeng which is adversely the reversal of the worker control principle and is against the union traditions.
However we support the call for the re-instatement of NUMSA and Cde Zwelinzima Vavi to be deliberated at the ordinary COSATU Congress in November 2015 as mandated by the majority of our union regions.
Statement issued by National Treasurer, Deputy General Secretary and Ceppwawu four Regions (Provinces), July 29 2015
