E17 000 WITHDRAWN, 3 NAPSAWU EXECUTIVE MEMBERS SUSPENDED

MANZINI – Three National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) national executive committee (NEC) members have been suspended for alleged misappropriation of the union’s funds.

The trio is known to this publication, but cannot be named for now, as they have not been found guilty of any wrongdoing. Their suspension follows an investigation into an anomaly in the activities of the union’s bank account. This was after E170 000 was reportedly withdrawn within 48 hours from the union’s bank account. The union’s account on January 4, 2024, had a balance of about E236 000, but on January 6, it reflected E66 000. Also, the anomalies noted included that one of the NEC members was allegedly loaned E3 000 from the union coffers, just after subscriptions were remitted while another NEC member allegedly had E3 500 deposited into his account.  Another anomaly was the payment of E9 736.76 for a set of new tyres for a vehicle not owned by the union. There was also a payment of E11 400 for spares of a vehicle not owned by the union. It was also gathered that another anomaly was that there were claims that an establishment used by the union for its congresses was paid E50 000 yet upon inspection, it was discovered that E25 000 had been paid.

Suspension

These, among other things, led to the suspension of the three NEC members last Thursday. Their suspension was subsequent to a resolution taken in a special National General Council (NGC) meeting held at the SNAT Centre on February 15, 2024. The NGC is a forum where all the 11 branches of NAPSAWU convene a meeting along with the NEC to deliberate on union issues. The 11 branches engage in an oversight role over the NEC. The special NGC agenda was the freezing of branch congress, outstanding branch claims and financials. During the special NGC, a statement submitted by one of the NEC members expressed how the unionists raised concerns over the manner in which the organisation’s funds were being used.
The report narrated that on January 4, 2024, the union subscriptions balance reflected on the NEC member’s phone as being about E236 000. However, on the subsequent day, January 5, 2024, the NEC member reported that there was a decline in the balance.

She said the balance had declined to E110 000, which prompted her to contact one of the suspended members to seek clarity on the ‘missing’ monies. The report submitted at the special NGC further states that the responsible officer explained that the money had been used to settle debts with the union’s lawyers and for a photo studio. It was said when seeking to establish more details on the said payments, the communication was terminated. The NEC member reported to the meeting that she then pursued communication with the responsible officer throughout the day; but her efforts fell short as her calls were not answered. “I then called another NEC member (title deliberately withheld) trying to find out about the transactions that they made with the responsible officer (position deliberately withheld) and the former did not pick his phone. In the morning again I tried calling to call them and both leaders did not pick their phones (sic),” reads the report in part.

Communication

The report states that after the realisation that both NEC members were not responding to her communication, she contacted another NEC member and informed him that the pair had allegedly made certain transactions on their own, much against the resolution of the NEC meeting, which stated that all payments to be made were to be first discussed by the committee, before they were made. The NEC member alleged in the special NGC that when she contacted one of the committee members, the balance was E110 000. She supposed that her communication relayed to the member that despite the previous balance of E110 000, the money in the union’s account had declined to E66 000 as more transactions were made.
Subsequent to this communication, the NEC member stated that she was advised that this issue should form part of the meeting which was scheduled for January 8, 2024. It was gathered that the issue formed part of the agenda items, which were listed as finances and was discussed by the NEC. During the meeting, it was supposed that the responsible officer was afforded the opportunity to present the finances of the union.

Submitted

During the presentation, the accused officer submitted that a payment of E50 000 to the law firm used by the union and also E50 000 to the hotel the union used for hosting its congresses and other meetings were made. “A question was raised on that since we are going to branch congresses that needed a budget, what would happen to those branches, because there was a balance of E66 000 (in the union’s account) (sic),” reads in part the statement presented at the special NGC. The response by the responsible officer was purported to have been that she intended not to pay NEC claims. It was supposed that the submissions to the special NGC did not communicate anything on the budget as to what would happen to the branch congresses.
This was said to have resulted in the meeting resolving that branch congresses should be postponed except for two branches; namely Hluthi and Mbabane, as the dates for the congresses for the pair were closer. The report stated that the postponement of the branch congresses affected the Big-Bend, Malkerns and Hlatikhulu branches. These branches’ congresses were slotted for a later date.

Conversely, on January 12, 2024, some members of the NEC organised a fact-finding mission to the entities which were allegedly paid from the union coffers. It was said there was an amount of E9 740 paid to Bandag Tyres and E11 440 paid to Motorzone. During the NEC’s their visits as part of the fact-finding mission, they were served with the necessary documents by the retailing outlets they visited after they had narrated the whole purpose of the investigation. “Additionally, we also requested CCTV camera footage to identify the person behind the (alleged) misuse of the union’s funds. The CCTV camera footage was granted and it is part of the proof that we have at our disposal,” alleges the statement in part.

The statement by the NEC details that on January 13, 2024, their fact-finding mission proceeded to Esibayeni Lodge for a verification of what was presented during the meeting by the responsible officer, who reportedly said a payment of E50 000 was made.  The NEC members’ statement reported that they uncovered that Esibayeni Lodge was paid half the amount, which was E25 000. Subsequent to this, they supposed to have requested to establish the history of payments deposited by the union to the institution. Following this discovery, the NEC members were said to have proceeded to the bank, where the union has an account and requested a statement which was granted to them.

“Upon inspection, we found that there are a lot of anomalies with regard to the transactions. We discovered that among the transactions there was money loaned to a current NEC member of E3 000,” the report claims. The statement further insinuated that on the day the first transactions were made, some monies were transferred to another NEC member’s account. The money alleged to have been transferred to the NEC member’s account is E3 500. This amount was supposedly transferred in two folds as there was first a deposit of E1 200, which was followed by another deposit of E2 300. These transactions, according to the statement, were made on January 4, 2024. The statement detailed that after these discoveries, the findings were reported during an NEC meeting, which was held on January 18, 2024.

It was said in the meeting, the members concerned were supposedly not forthcoming with explanations or answers regarding the transactions. It was reported that two of the members were served with letters demanding that they clarify and explain on the transactions and payments. It was reported that the letters directed to the responsible officer sought her to account for the transactions while that to the other NEC member was purportedly for assisting the former.

Frustrating

“After seeing that the matter was reaching a stagnant posture, I wrote another letter requesting the NEC member to facilitate that the matter be resolved through the sitting of an Extra-Ordinary National General Council, as it was frustrating the smooth operations of the organisation,” alleges the report. It was alleged that the NEC member refused to engage in this initiative as he purportedly cited that the NEC had not discussed the matter at its level where such a resolution had to be taken. During this period, it was said the union’s account had been frozen in an effort to salvage the little money that was left. It was claimed that postponing the matter had negative effects on the operations of the union. This resulted in the matter being postponed to the meeting, which was convened on February 13, 2024. In this meeting, it was said after discussing the finances, the issue would have been taken to the Extra-Ordinary National General Council.

However, halfway through the NEC meeting, some Branch Executive Committee (BEC) leaders reportedly arrived at the meeting to petition the NEC. It was said the BEC leaders wanted the NEC to call a special Extra-Ordinary National General Council, which would lead to the special NGC. This was said to have led to the NEC granting the branch leaders their request and as such, the special NGC was held on February 16, 2024, which resulted in the suspension of the three NEC members.

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