Union members back fund managers in trust feud

Johannesburg - A faction of the Chemical Energy Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu) is demanding answers from some union leaders following last week’s march against its fund managers.

The group led by the union’s deputy general secretary, Chief Seatlholo, who doesn’t see eye to eye with general secretary Simon Mofokeng, said they were puzzled by the intention of the march.

Seatlholo said Mofokeng was playing dumb by claiming that payouts due to the union and its members were being withheld against their will by Letsema Consulting boss Isaac Shongwe. The union marched on Shongwe’s office last week.

Shongwe has also denied any wrongdoing in the saga. Seatlholo vouched for him yesterday, saying history had shown that the deals had been made in the past, and now it seemed some within the union wanted to renege for reasons not disclosed to members.

“Simon made an affidavit under oath around 2009 in support of Isaac Shongwe. It is surprising that people who went under oath and said things in support of Letsema are the ones today coming to us and saying these things,” said Seatlholo.

Mofokeng’s faction accused Seatlholo and the union's national treasurer, Thulasizwe Sibande, of selling out the union by siding with Shongwe.

They went as far as suggesting the leaders had been bribed with “brown envelopes”.

Shongwe was labelled as “greedy and unscrupulous”, but the prominent businessman said this could not be further from the truth.

This week, Seatlholo said Ceppwawu had an agreement with Shongwe that he would be paid 27.5 percent of the financial gains from the investments. He said it was a mystery to them why the other leaders wanted to disavow the deal.

Yesterday, Shongwe agreed with Seatlholo, saying union members knew what his company was entitled to.

“The terms of the agreement were well known to the union, and the reduction to 27.5 percent was fully reported on by the then president of the union to its national executive committee (NEC) in 2007 and noted with approval, as the union’s own NEC minutes in fact show,” said Shongwe.

Seatlholo said the only reason the union had been unable to access its billions was because Mofokeng and other leaders had taken up positions as trustees of the Ceppwawu trust unprocedurally. Funds are channelled from the investment company to the union through the trust.

During the march, Mofokeng alleged that Shongwe was the sole trustee of the trust, which has since been rebutted.

Seatlholo and Shongwe agreed that Ceppwawu’s assets needed to be protected.

“There is no truth in the statement that a R6 billion pay-out was due to the union in June or at any other time. Furthermore, it is utterly false that any payments have not been made because of any dispute over the amount of money due to Letsema; there is in fact no such dispute, Shongwe said.

“The majority of the union’s regions voted to terminate the invalid appointments of Mofokeng, the president and the second deputy president as trustees as long ago as May 2014. The trust is de facto inquorate and unable to receive any payments,” he added.

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