Hawks hunting for union boss

THE mismanagement of South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) funds could land one of the union’s leaders in hot water, including possible arrest.

Sowetan understands that a subpoena has been issued against the Cosatu affiliate’s general secretary Walter Theledi, who is expected to appear in the Johannesburg Commercial Crimes Court to answer questions about missing millions.

Yesterday, a Hawks official confirmed they would serve the subpoena on an “evasive ” Theledi as soon as they were able to locate him. They want him to explain why he gave consultant Samuel Phaswane passwords to the union’s accounts and how millions of members’ money were allegedly misused under his watch.

Phaswane, who was allegedly at the centre of the collapse of Samwu finances, appeared in the Johannesburg Commercial Crimes Court on Monday to face a R7million fraud charge.

He was denied bail on the basis that he was a flight risk. Another reason was that all six of his cars were found to have been registered under fake addresses.

He is expected to appear in court again on May 22. Police had also spent weeks looking for him before his arrest last week.

Theledi could not be reached for comment yesterday. His deputy, Simon Miya, said he was not aware of any subpoena being issued against Theledi.

“We are not aware of any subpoena, but should we receive it we will deal with it accordingly.”

Should Theledi fail to present himself to court, he could be arrested.

The Samwu leadership have washed their hands of Phaswane, who it emerged in court had unrestricted access to the union’s bank accounts as a project manager among other services he provided.

Union leaders who were sidelined after raising questions about an alleged R136-million that could not be accounted for believed that Phaswane did not act alone in allegedly defrauding the union.

The disgruntled Samwu group have accused the current leaders of fraud and corruption. But the leadership has since denied this.

Questions have been raised about how renovations to the union’s offices sky-rocketed from R6-million to R33-million.

The disgruntled members, through their Save Our Samwu campaign, said they hoped the subpoena would force Theledi to finally answer. “He has been evading the police. They have been phoning and he always failed to present himself despite promising to do so,” said spokesman Sello Selepe.

Despite Samwu national office bearers’ insistence that there was never any wrongdoing on their part, Selepe was adamant members’ subscriptions were misused.