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GroundUp reports that National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim scored a R40,000 birthday party, and his daughter a laptop, thanks to a life insurance company owned by Numsa's workers' trust.
These transactions were among a host with "unclear" commercial benefit in 2018 alone, according to a 2020 investigation report by auditing firm Deloitte. This report has come to light as part of the court record in a bitter tussle for control of embattled life insurer 3Sixty Life, which is wholly owned by the National Manufacturing Workers Investment Trust (Numsa Trust), albeit through three layers of umbrella companies. In December 2021, after a year of operating in an insolvent position, 3Sixty Life was placed under curatorship by order of the South Gauteng High Court, following an application by the Prudential Authority. In May 2020, Gerdus Dixon, an audit partner at Deloitte, had been appointed by the Prudential Authority as an investigator in the matter. Dixon's investigation found evidence that Numsa had been using 3Sixty Life to pay for things that had no commercial value to the company. This support included: R15,578 for laptop for Irvin Jim's daughter; R40,430 for Irvin Jim's birthday party; R114,425 for a Numsa gala dinner; R10,000 to cover transport costs, purportedly for a Numsa delegation visit to the 3Sixty Life offices; and R48,300 for a two-day event for Numsa's Wits region branch. Dixon euphemistically called the commercial benefit of these costs "unclear".
- Read the full original of the detailed report in the above regard by James Stent at GroundUp
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