Fedusa parts ways with long-serving George

THE FEDERATION of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) yesterday officially parted ways with its long serving general secretary Dennis George through a settlement in which he would get no compensation.

In a statement yesterday, the parties announced they reached the agreement through a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) process.

They said the terms of the agreement would, however, remain confidential.

George, who has now set his eye on entrepreneurial ventures in the Tech space, said his decision to purchase shares in AYO Technology Solutions was to warehouse the shares in Difeme Holdings on behalf of Fedusa.

He stated that he, for his part, did not receive any financial gain of a personal nature from the sale purchase and that the warehoused shares were purchased with the aim to empower trade unions, workers and rural communities.

Fedusa put George on special leave in February, which turned into cautionary suspension, while law firm Baker McKenzie investigated the matter.

He was fired in May on claims that he may have personally benefited through the acquisition of AYO shares through his company Difeme Holdings.

Fedusa has constantly maintained that it never gave any “mandate for the acquisition of shares from any company in the name of the trade union”. The union dismissed what it called an attempt to link it to Difeme Holdings.

Sekunjalo chairperson, Dr Iqbal Survé, said at the time George had not been fairly handled by the media.

“When we listed AYO Technologies, the executive team came to me and said since I always talk about broad-based and inclusive empowerment, what do I think they should do in this case.

“I said, ‘Let us invite labour unions to invest in AYO by allocating 10 percent of the shares to them at R1.50 per share’.”

Survé said he was not going to apologise to anyone for empowering workers.