Scuffle in Samwu over missing millions

Cape Town - The majority of provincial branches of the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) have called for the suspension of its leadership after it emerged that up to R140m has gone missing.

According to the Sunday Times, Samwu’s provincial leaders called on their national counterparts to account for between R70m and R140m.

The national leadership, however, has refused to appoint an independent forensic audit to investigate the allegations.

The claims of missing funds arose after a draft financial audit found that huge amounts of money have potentially been lost. At a special meeting three weeks ago, union bosses refused to appoint forensic auditors despite five out of nine provinces asking for this. Instead, union bosses started suspending those who called for the audit.

Samwu, which has 180 000 members, represents some of the lowest-paid government workers.