Dear Mr. Jabulani Khumalu and SATAWU Leadership,
It is with grave concern that the United National Transport Union (UNTU) takes note of the content of an e-mail sent by you on 17 January, 2017, to several of your members.
UNTU would hereby like to ask you to immediately withdraw the comments made on behalf of SATAWU, in the said e-mail, and, unconditionally apologize to UNTU and all the other individuals implicated in your e-mail.
The information provided in your e-mail is false and contains various defamatory remarks damaging the good reputation of UNTU and its members on various grounds.
UNTU highlights a few:
- UNTU does not spread lies about the infighting in SATAWU. The Union quotes various media reports which SATAWU does not deny. See: http://www.enca.com/south-africa/satawu-plunges-into-crisis;
- None of the members suspended by SATAWU have been found guilty in a court of law or even in any tribal or disciplinary process of soliciting bribes. To state that they are venal, paradox fellows, proves that they have a guilty conscious and are “askaris”, is defamatory at its best. As you know “askaris” was the name commonly used under the Apartheid regime for a member of the ANC who changed sides and joined the apartheid governments’ police force.
- It is defamatory to refer to individuals who use their Constitutional right to choose a Trade Union as “fools”.
UNTU considers the content of this e-mail in totality as the type of remarks that the Proposed Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill, aims at making criminal offences that may land you in jail for up to three years. This should be an indication to SATAWU that even petty insults are no longer acceptable in our Constitutional democracy.
Lastly, SATAWU, as the minority Union in Transnet, PRASA and Bombela, is at UNTU’s mercy for not being kicked out of the Transnet Bargaining Council, should stop insinuating that they are the only Union representing Africans, but should rather state that SATAWU only has an African membership. UNTU is a diverse union and has a 70% African membership.
Awaiting your immediate response.
Steve Harris
General Secretary: UNTU
