Fraud case against 3 NAPSAWU members begins
MANZINI – A case of fraud has been opened with the police against three senior National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) members.
The three NAPSAWU members are purported to have defrauded the union about E185 000. The case was opened with the Fraud Department of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) in Manzini by the NAPSAWU President, Bawinile Ndlovu.
She confirmed this but requested not delve much into the issue. Ndlovu said her challenge was that the case was already with the police, while on the other hand, the union members who were reported to the police over the alleged misappropriation were yet to receive their letters.
The president declined to expand on the delay in serving the accused union members with the letters. However, this publication gathered from sources that on Monday, the sheriff who was enlisted to serve the trio with the letters fell sick before delivering them to the accused national executive committee (NEC) members. It was gathered that the union ended up seeking the services of another sheriff to deliver the letters. An effort to establish from the three NEC members if they had received their letters seeking that they account for their alleged role in the amount which was unaccounted for in the union’s coffers fell through, as their mobile phones rang unanswered.
This publication also sent them a questionnaire, which sought to establish if they were aware of their suspension and what they could say on the allegations levelled against them was unanswered by the time this report was sent for publication.
The three NEC members are known to this publication and because they are still deemed innocent of the accusations levelled against them they shall not be named.
Confirmed
On the other hand, the Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer, Assistant Superintendent Nosipho Mnguni, confirmed that a case was opened with the police. Mnguni said the police were investigating a fraud case of E185 000 and at this stage, no person had been arrested.
It is worth noting that this publication on Tuesday reported that three NAPSAWU NEC members were suspended for alleged misappropriation of the union’s funds.
Their suspension followed an investigation into an anomaly in the activities of the union’s bank account. This was after E170 000 was reportedly withdrawn within 48 hours from the union’s bank account. The union’s account on January 4, 2024, had a balance of about E236 000, but on January 6, it reflected E66 000. Also, the anomalies noted included that one of the NEC members was allegedly loaned E3 000 from the union coffers, just after subscriptions were remitted while another NEC member allegedly had E3 500 deposited into his account.
These, among other things, led to the suspension of the three NEC members last Thursday. Their suspension was subsequent to a resolution taken in a special National General Council (NGC) meeting held at the SNAT Centre on February 15, 2024.