Pretoria High Court judgement deregisters SASFU from the SANDF
25 Mar 2011
The Pretoria High Court has ruled that the Registrar of trade union, Mr Craus, an independent office located in the Department of Labour is correct to deregister South African Security Forces Union (SASFU) as a union operating in the Department of Defence (DOD). This follows an urgent application brought by SASFU to stop the deregistration due to its failure to comply with basic requirements of operating as a union in South Africa.
The Registrar of trade union wrote to both SASFU and South African National Defence Union (SANDU) the main unions operating in the Department of Defence to provide his office with financial statements and other documents that they are required to submit, and have not been submitting. SASFU was unable to provide any of the information and was automatically deregistered as a union in the department. SANDU submitted some information and requested an extension of the deadline.
SANDU currently does not meet the threshold to be in the Military Bargaining Council, its audited membership is 11000 and is required to have 15 000 to operate in the Bargaining Chamber. The Department of Defence has no formal relationship with any union, as they both do not meet the threshold.
As it stands SASFU is no longer a registered union in the Department of Defence. The Department has stopped all the membership deductions from the payroll and any other recognition in the DOD. If SANDU misses the deadline of submitting the information or do not submit the required information by the registrar, the Department will support the Registrar in deregistering SANDU. Our support of the Registrar is based on the principle that Unions which operate in the Department must respect the rule of law and their obligations.
Looking at the progress made since we stopped all engagements with the unions, it is clear that the DOD is a better organisation without trade unions.
Statement issued by Ndivhuwo Mabaya, Head of Media Services, Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans, March 25 2011
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