The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has lifted the suspension of a high-ranking Mpumalanga official implicated in the missing construction and mine workers union funds.
Sunday World has been reliably informed that the NUM national executive committee lifted the suspension at its recent meeting in Kempton Park.
This publication reported that the NUM Highveld regional official was put on ice after over R11-million in worker subscriptions allegedly went unaccounted for.
Mining company Seriti Coal mistakenly deposited the funds into the account of the Highveld agency of the union instead of the NUM’s national subscription account.
The agency account is used to fund the training of members only, however, our deep throat said instead the money was allegedly used to pay bogus service providers.
Sunday World can further reveal that, according to the deep throat, the NEC further resolved to disband the team it had appointed to investigate the missing millions. Instead, it will appoint a private company to handle the probe.
“In a bad way, comrades are voting for a decision that should not be voted for. If someone misuses the resources of the organisation, that person must be subjected to a disciplinary hearing. But because of the silly season of the congress, these things happen, but we must safeguard the organisation,” said the source, who preferred to remain anonymous.
The NUM elective conference is scheduled for June 24 and 25.
“Appointing a service provider to probe these unaccounted-for funds would result in a misuse of funds because this is going to cost the organisation,” said the source.
Sunday World understands that the investigation team was disbanded after it produced a damning preliminary report.
This publication reported last week that the R11.2-million was allegedly paid into a bank account controlled by Highveld leadership.
The scandal resulted in a fallout among NUM officials, with two volunteering to expose how the implicated regional leaders used the funds.
These tidbits are contained in several letters, which this publication has seen.
On October 29 last year, acting NUM general secretary Mpho Phakedi wrote to his Highveld branch counterpart Thapelo Malekutu, informing him that the national office had been following up on the outstanding funds since August 2023 without success.
“On reconciliation of the Seriti Coal Agency fund account, the regional accountant picked up unusual deposits into the account, which were more than what Seriti Coal would normally pay for agency fees deducted from their employees in terms of the agency shop agreement,” writes Phakedi.
“…The joint reconciliation revealed that the total amount paid to the Seriti Coal Agency Account erroneously amounts to R11,240,854.07.
“As of 29th October 2024, we have picked up that the bank account has a closing balance of R6,053,337.54 which is R5,186,510.53 less than what should have been refunded to the subscription account due to the fact that the region spent the money that belongs to subscriptions.”
Phakedi then requested that Highveld transfer R6-million to the NUM subscription account, with the balance to be paid in instalments.
On February 11, NUM coordinator Thapelo Malekutu penned a letter in which he offered to spill the beans on the missing millions. He cried foul that he had to resign from the union due to “ongoing attacks” by the Highveld leadership.
Malekutu added that the regional leadership expelled him from the union without inviting him to a disciplinary inquiry.
He asserts that as the former regional administrator and current employee of Seriti, he was willing to volunteer any information regarding the use of the Seriti agency fee as well as details concerning the R11-million left by a former secretary.
However, in a twist of events, Malekutu wrote a letter to the NUM NEC in February to withdraw his resignation.
Phakedi had not responded to Sunday World questions by the time of publication.
However, Phakedi recently said, “The NUM has internal processes for dealing with matters. The NEC has appointed a task team to investigate the allegations and report.
In the interest of allowing a fair process, the NEC has applied precautionary suspension until the investigation is concluded.”
