Panic in Saccawu as liquidation looms over R30m debt

COSATU’S retail and services affiliate, the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu), has failed to meet the deadline to pay about R30 million it owes to its liquidated investment company and now faces liquidation itself.

Saccawu, which has more than 170 000 members, was meant to pay the money by close of business yesterday.

However, the curator of the Saccawu National Provident Fund (SNPF), Anthony Mostert, said the union’s leaders had not delivered by 5pm.

This means liquidators have the option to go to court to get the money from Saccawu, and the union may be declared insolvent.

“I am trying to prevent liquidation. It would be a social and political problem. But the union’s co-operation will be required,” Mostert told Independent Media.

Last month, after the union lost its last legal battle in the Constitutional Court to try to avoid paying, Mostert attached and froze its bank account containing R3.5m.

The union’s staffers are now panicking that they will not be paid their salaries on March 25. Their cellphones have been disconnected because Vodacom has not been paid.

A union official told Independent Media that the union’s leaders had met service providers, including Old Mutual, to bail it out. He was not able to say how much money was raised, if any.

Saccawu has been in trouble for more than a decade, fighting court battles over the misappropriation of money since the SNPF was placed under curatorship by the Financial Services Board (FSB) in 2002.

In an effort to prevent Saccawu’s liquidation, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has stepped in and asked the FSB to intervene.

He was “hopeful”. The union’s leaders could not be reached for comment.

If the union does fold, it will leave tens of thousands of workers unprotected in a sector that is increasingly facing retrenchments and bosses who opt for casual labour.