Plan to disband Sama union no longer on the cards

The South African Medical Association’s (Sama’s) plan to disestablish its trade union structure has fallen through after an extraordinary general meeting during which the decision was voted against.

The organisation has been at odds with leaders of the trade union, who have instituted litigation to halt the move and safeguard funds raised through union subscriptions.

Sama had wanted to amend its memorandum of incorporation (MoI) — in line with a 2015 board decision to disestablish the union — during the extraordinary meeting on Saturday.

“The trade union movement has defeated the ... board in the EGM [extraordinary general meeting]. The old MoI that recognises the trade union was reinstated. The new proposed MoI to disband the trade union was defeated,” said Sama union leader Dr Mahlane Phalane.

The meeting had allegedly been scheduled hurriedly on the heels of the application filed by the trade union leaders in the High Court in Pretoria.

The union leaders want the high court to preserve all funds collected by the association from subscription fees paid by members. They claimed the funds were being misappropriated by the association’s board, but Sama has denied this..

The high court struck the matter off its urgent roll last week.

Dr Tsametse Mohlamonyane, a member of the Gauteng provincial executive committee, said that if the Sama board succeeded in amending the organisation’s memorandum of incorporation, the trade union’s constitution would have been repealed, leaving doctors without a trade union to bargain for their interests with employers. “They wanted to subjugate all the trade union subcommittees because, according to them, there was not a trade union anymore,” he said.

Mohlamonyane further explained that the fight would now be about the transfer of the union’s assets in order to separate them from the assets of the association.

Sama has argued in court papers that it had never sought to create parallel structures when it registered the union, but had done so as the need arose for “Sama to be able to represent its members within the forums established in terms of the Labour Relations Act”. It also said that in order for the association to represent employees in bargaining councils, it would either need to be a trade union or an employee association.

Mohlamonyane said the conflict between Sama and the trade union threatened the organisation’s existence.

“As much as they are fighting ... they registered the entire organisation as a union. If the court upholds a decision to deregister it, then the entire organisation would be liquidated,” he said.

The trade union had approached the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission to request an investigation into the affairs at Sama.

Meanwhile, Sama has denied fraud allegations against it, saying there was no evidence. entire

THE FIGHT WOULD NOW BE ABOUT THE TRANSFER OF THE UNION’S ASSETS