Workers disunited by 'thuggery'.

Leading unions fragmented by drive for positions, patronage
 Political manipulation and a drive for positions, power and patronage are threatening the stability of at least two of the country's major trade unions.

The SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) seem headed for considerable turmoil, especially in the Western Cape.

Sadtu, already racked with division over the controversial axing of its president, Willie Madisha, faces difficulties in at least three provinces.

In Nehawu's Western Cape branches accusations of "political thuggery" abound. The acrimony has spilled over into Cosatu and other affiliated unions in the province.

Speaking last week at the KwaZulu-Natal Sadtu conference, Madisha's successor, Thobile Ntola, warned that the battle for positions threatened the union's existence.

He did not pinpoint regions, but there is considerable foment in Sadtu branches, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and North West.

Many of the disputes are about gaining lucrative official positions that carry both power and the ability to distribute patronage.

"Today it's not just the salary, it's the perks such as cars, drivers, credit cards and expenses," said a disgruntled Sadtu shop steward. He added that the latest status symbol for union leaders appeared to be a personal bodyguard. "Even [Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima] Vavi turned up at a strike picket recently with a bodyguard."

However, some of the disgruntlement, certainly within Sadtu, is a hangover from the row about the treatment of Madisha and the subsequent expulsion of Limpopo Sadtu chairman Thabo Magabane.

Several teacher union meetings in that province have discussed the possibility of forming a breakaway union with groups mainly from North West and Free State, as well as further afield.

In Western Cape, the long delayed provincial congress of Nehawu is likely to be the focus of bitter infighting between members of the SA Communist Party (SACP) who seem determined to unseat provincial secretary Suraya Jaywoodeen - accused in a briefing note to SACP cadres earlier this year of being "an Indian woman … who is an ultraleftist".

Quoting from an SACP paper delivered at a provincial alliance summit in June, the note added: "It is important that we collectively deal with workerism, entryism, opportunism, ultraleftism and other such sectarian tendencies within the progressive trade union movement."

The chairman of the Cape Town region of Nehawu, Theo Messiah, who works at the Cape Technicon and is regarded as generally supportive of Jaywoodeen, was last week unofficially deposed by members of the local executive, headed by Thembela Gazi, a Nehawu shop steward in the local land affairs department.

Gazi, the secretary of the Young Communist League, proposes to challenge Jaywoodeen for the post of provincial secretary of the union on the grounds that she is "ultraleftist". Gazi and other supporters apparently agree with SACP provincial chairman Karl Cloete's claim that they are fighting for "the heart and soul of Cosatu in the Western Cape".

In a message to SACP members, Gazi spelled out that he supported "the SACP's medium-term vision on key sites of power being the state (including but not limited to parliament), community, workplace [and] economy".

Gazi said this vision "enjoins us to ensure that working-class hegemony is obtained in all these sites of power".

However, Jaywoodeen's supporters maintain that the main reason she has been targeted is that she stopped a monthly payment of R15 000 to the provincial SACP, which could then no longer afford the R8 000 monthly rent for its city offices.

Nehawu, whose president, Noluthando Sibiya, and general secretary, Fikile Majola, both serve on the SACP central committee, is one of the unions affiliated to Cosatu that makes large, regular financial contributions to the SACP. Others include Sadtu, the National Union of Mineworkers and the SA Municipal Workers' Union.

These payments are in line with a resolution taken at the Cosatu congress in 1996, at which the SACP was officially acknowledged as "the workers' party".

According to a Samwu official, contributing unions usually have the names of one or two SACP functionaries on their payrolls.

Jaywoodeen, who has a reputation for efficiency, would not comment on "union business" other than to confirm that she had stopped the contribution.

It is known that she also opposed the 33 percent pay rise given to Nehawu provincial secretaries last year, describing it as "obscene". This took their monthly salaries to R20 000.

Although this salary is higher than the R16 000 to R17 000 paid to Cosatu provincial secretaries, benefits including cars and home loans bring the average Cosatu provincial secretary's monthly package up to about R30 000.

Like a number of Nehawu members, Jaywoodeen has expressed concern in the past about the union's finances. This is justified.

Nehawu, one of the country's big five unions with nearly 213 000 members, had its accounts qualified in 2004, did not submit accounts in 2005 and has not yet submitted accounts for last year.