Another+funds+scandal+rocks+SACP,+Terry+Bell,+The+Star

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=Another funds scandal rocks SACP=


 * Terry Bell, The Star, 7 November 2007**

//Nzimande and Madisha opened secret bank account 'in case party needed to go it alone'//

Did SA Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande withdraw and not account for R124 500 from a secret account set up by himself and SA Democratic Teachers' Union president Willie Madisha?

This is the latest financial scandal to rock the SACP.

Only Madisha, who is also president of COSATU, and Nzimande had signing rights to the account, but it was registered to Nzimande's home address, and Madisha has stated emphatically that he never wrote any cheque or checked on the account after it was set up. Nzimande has not commented.

The account, in the name of Kopano Solidarity and registered to the Emmarentia, Joburg, home of Nzimande, was set up in May 2002, apparently without the knowledge of other members of the SACP leadership.

I came across the account during ongoing investigations into claimed financial and administrative irregularities in various trade union-linked organisations.

I discovered that Kopano Solidarity had received donations from trade union sources and from the Chinese embassy. But rumours are now circulating implicating Madisha in the cash withdrawals from the account. These took place over 41 months and ranged from R1 500 to R20 000, for a total of R124 500.

Whoever withdrew the money, it is not clear whether it was used for personal enrichment. It might have been used for party purposes, though the secretiveness has raised questions.

Madisha was at first reluctant to comment but felt he had to defend himself since the rumours that he withdrew the money appeared part of a campaign to oust him as president of SADTU and therefore from the same position in COSATU.

A motion of no-confidence in Madisha, alleging his "lack of revolutionary and organisational discipline", was expected to be tabled today at a meeting of the national general council of SADTU in Joburg.


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4117256**

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