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Mail & Guardian reports that the tit-for-tat factional battle for control of the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) has taken yet another twist.
The union’s deputy general secretary, Moleko Phakedi, was suspended on Tuesday, hours after he was reinstated by the labour court. The national office bearers immediately placed Phakedi, who is also the deputy general secretary of the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), on suspension with full pay, pending an investigation into his alleged violation of Fawu’s constitution by conducting himself “in a manner which intentionally causes division”. In response, Phakedi’s faction has convened its own, parallel meeting of the union’s national officer bearers and has called on union staff and members to “ignore” the rival grouping. Fawu had previously dismissed Phakedi, who was then reinstated by the labour court. It then stripped him of his powers and stopped his pay, and went to the court seeking an order confirming this. But, in its judgment on Tuesday, the labour court in Johannesburg dismissed Fawu’s application and instead issued a declaratory order confirming Phakedi as an employee of the union. It also ruled that Fawu should allow him all of his contractual rights as an employee. The fight between the faction led by Phakedi and by former general secretary Katishi Masemola, who is also challenging his dismissal from the union, and a grouping led by Fawu’s president Atwell Nazo and deputy general secretary Mayoyo Mngomezulu is said to have brought the union to its knees.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Paddy Harper at Mail & Guardian
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