Tikana disputes various charges made by Nehawu

The ANC and its alliance partners met behind closed doors at Calata House on Monday following a cold war between transport department MEC Weziwe Tikana and the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) on the King William’s Town shop floor.

Nehawu accuses Tikana of corruption and nepotism, a claim Tikana disputes.

The issue has been registered as defamation through an interdict her lawyers threatened to file against Nehawu general secretary Zola Saphetha.

Saphetha led a delegation of Nehawu to the meeting on Monday, to discuss issues of concern.

This was after Saphetha’s office published a statement announcing it would file criminal charges against the department.

Before they filed the defamation case, Tikana's lawyers sent Saphetha a letter which prompted the ANC and its alliance partners to call the impromptu meeting at Calata House.

On Monday the union was supposed to march to the King William’s Town police station to open cases of fraud and corruption but instead met with Tikana behind closed doors.

In a letter dated Monday, March 11, Tonise Attorneys wrote to Saphetha asking if he was the author of the “defamatory letter”.

ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi confirmed the meeting saying that if Nehawu members had corruption evidence against anyone in the department they should report it to the authorities.