Nasty court battle bleeds doctors’ trade union dry

‘We afforded both directors an opportunity to present their side of the story, which they both declined to do on legal advice’ Angelique Coetzee SAMA PRESIDENT

The SA Medical Association’s (Sama) trade union arm has been placed under administration by the registrar of the labour court, a development insiders say is the result of costly internal power struggle.

The registrar last week took over the trade union, saying it had failed to provide audited financial statements and meeting minutes as required by “its own constitution and the Labour Relations Act”.

The Sama trade union also had no records of income and expenditure, assets and liabilities or meetings and voting ballots. The registrar said she had placed it under administration to protect the trade union members.

The matter went to court at the time of internal leadership squabbles.

In August, two directors of the Sama board, Dr Cedric Sihlangu and Dr Tshilidizi Sadiki, resigned “amid allegations of a breach of duties as directors”.

Sama president Angelique Coetzee, in a statement posted on its website, said Sihlangu and Sadiki had resigned from the board after being suspended, but did not give any reasons for their departure.

“In line with good corporate governance principles, and in terms of the procedure set out in the companies act, we afforded both directors an opportunity to present their side of the story, which they both declined to do on legal advice. Instead, they tendered their resignations,” Coetzee said.

Though Sadiki and Sihlangu left Sama, the pair turned to the labour court in a bid to win control of the trade union arm.

The background to Sama’s role as a trade union dates back to 1996, when the Labour Relations Act came into effect.

The new law meant Sama, a nonprofit company set up in 1972 to represent doctors’ interests, could no longer bargain for doctors’ wages at the Public Sector Bargaining Council.

For bargaining, it required Sama to be a trade union.

Sama, which represents 16,500 state and private doctors, then created a trade union arm, but that was never separated from the mother body.

This is why Sadiki and Sihlangu turned to the labour court. The pair argued it was unlawful not to have it as a separate entity.

But a senior Sama manager, Vusumuzi Nhlapo, said in court papers the union was never intended to function separately.

According to court papers, Sama gets about R14m annually in membership fees.

The registrar did not award the pair control of the union, opting rather to place it under administration.

Sama has been lobbying the government unsuccessfully since 2008 for doctors to have the same rights as judges, and to be able to bargain without being a trade union.

Sama communications officer Simona Magardie declined to comment about Sihlangu and Sadiki’s resignations.

Magardie said the Sama trade union respected the court outcome.