News on SA Clothing Sector

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Friday, 24 June 2011

Did Sactwu know about pension funds?

South Africa


Yesterday, The Redress Consultancy established that the deputy general secretary of the clothing union Sactwu was one of the trustees of the dubious 2007 investment of  R420 million of pension funds belonging to members of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu). This has just being confirmed by the Mail & Guardian.

In a document addressed to members and employers, which, is titled “Textile Industry Provident Fund: Update on Fund Investments,” the deputy general secretary of the union is cited as a trustee. The letter to members and employers which is signed by the Chairman of Trustees has been written to, “clarify the Fund’s position on this matter, the action the Fund and its Trustees are taking to address the potential losses and also to clarify certain misconceptions that have been created by some of the press reports.”

In a recent report, [1]the general secretary of Sactwu stated, “Pension fund trustees took the decision about where to invest the money, not Sactwu.”  However, a report in today’s Mail & Guardian, [2] it was confirmed that the “spotlight had also fallen on Sactwu deputy general secretary Wayne van der Rheede,” as being the “principal officer of the Textile and Allied Workers’ provident Fund, one of the affected provident funds.” 

The article says union staff claimed that Van der Rheede had “not alter[ted] them to any problems or risky investment.”

In the same article Sactwu’s  general secretary said the union could not be held responsible … as investment “decisions were taken by the funds’ board of trustees [and] union structures were never party to the discussion on how they had reached these decisions.”   


[1] “Murky Sactwu pension deal probed,” Mail & Guardian, 3 June 2011
[2] “Fears that pension fund consultant may flee,” Mail & Guardian, 24 June 2011

2 comments:

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Justin said...

never before have so many unionists ducked & dived before and pleaded innocent by virtue of being ignorant - they have wasted their members hard earned pension fund savings & even having representation on the board of trustees one really needs to ask are they themselves competent to lead.

The board of trustees before making decisions regarding any investments need approval from the members or their representatives - correct me if I am incorrect - what then is the secretary general of sactwu saying - he has no idea what goes on - he is blind - ignorant - or both.

thank goodness they do not run the banking system in this country.