Axed Satawu boss points fingers at colleagues

Johannesburg - The axed Gauteng provincial secretary of the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu), Gift Ndwandwe, may have fake identity documents.

Home affairs spokesperson Thabo Mokgola alleged that Ndwandwe’s name might not even be Ndwandwe.

“Preliminary investigations have revealed that the name he is using might not be his real name,” Mokgola said.

Mokgola said Ndwandwe had testified that he was born in Zimbabwe, but could not explain how and when he entered the country.

However, he did produce a school letter from Zitike Primary School in KwaZulu-Natal, which he claims to have attended in 1995 when he was 14.

Ndwandwe, speaking through his lawyer Simphiwe Mngomezulu, denied he was using a false name.

Ndwandwe said he was dramatically frog-marched out of the union’s provincial offices in Johannesburg on Wednesday by police and home affairs officials.

Speaking to City Press, Mngomezulu said his client was in the process of appealing the failed appeal of the order that Ndwandwe be deported.

He said the decision by the union’s national task team on the termination of his employment as its provincial secretary was not communicated to him formally, but was rather relayed via social media.

“The way this thing has been handled, it seems there are some of his rivals within the union who have a hand in this because there was no need for some of the actions,” Mngomezulu said, adding that the appeal had been sent to Home Affairs Minister Ayanda Dlodlo to either confirm or set aside.

Jack Mazibuko, the coordinator of Satawu’s national task team dealing with the issue, said the decision to fire Ndwandwe was made after all the facts had been considered, including that his appeal to the director-general of home affairs failed.

Mazibuko said the union’s provincial executive committee in Gauteng would have to appoint an interim secretary until its conference later this year.

Asked how Ndwandwe rose through the ranks without being detected, Mazibuko said records showed he joined in 2010 as an employee of a security company and he was elected as provincial secretary in 2015.