Business Times writes that according to former labour registrar Johan Crouse, trade unions were fleecing their members, and the government was making it difficult to hold them accountable.
Referring to a recent call by Nactu for the government to hold the labour federation’s unions accountable amid claims and proof of rampant corruption and maladministration, Crouse, who was fired by the labour minister for trying to do just that, said in an interview that calls by union leaders for their organisations to be held accountable were "just rhetoric. He also said he found it difficult to take seriously Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini's recent remark about union investment companies being "a cancer ripping us all apart". While agreeing with him, Crouse pointed out that it was Cosatu that got Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant to intervene when he as labour regulator tried to enforce accountability on Ceppwawu, a Cosatu affiliate. Unions have constitutional checks and balances, but these were easily circumvented by strong leaders who ran unions with a small clique of senior office bearers who were close to them, Crouse claimed. Political interference in the work of the labour regulator had become "the standard, the norm", said Crouse. Moreover, the department has been restructured "so that the link of the registrar to the minister and director-general is more direct than in the past" meaning that the oversight and monitoring role of the registrar has been blunted, making it easier for corruption in the unions to flourish.
- Read more of this Business Times interview by Chris Barron at SA Labour News
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