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Samatu’s manager wants Sama to finish, saying he owes the union about R400 million in membership dues alone.
JOHANNESBURG – The South African Medical Association (Sama) could be liquidated if its union administrator, the South African Medical Association Union (Samatu), has his way.
According to Gerhard Vosloo’s court request filed last week, he wants Sama to terminate because he owes the union R370 million in membership dues alone.
Said in newspapers viewed by Eyewitness news that the association did not pay that money despite several lawsuits, so it should be considered insolvent. Meanwhile, Sama argued that the monthly membership fees he received belonged to him as a professional body for physicians.
The Labor Registry put the union under administration in October last year after several violations of the Labor Relations Law. This led to a bitter legal battle between Sama, a non-profit professional association, and the union’s administrator. The union represents some 7,500 doctors in the public sector.
The court then appointed Vosloo to, among others, take control of cash, investments, stocks and other securities and assets owned or managed by everyone on behalf of the union.
Samatu has existed for 24 years; Receive membership subscriptions, agency fees, and other bargaining council levies intended for the exclusive use of the union. Sama’s problems date back to the union’s creation in 1996, as he did not open a separate bank account for the union as required by law. Instead, union members’ subscription fees were paid into the association’s bank accounts. Sama has told the courts that at no time did he intend to establish a union that was a separate entity from the association.
Calculations by Eyewitness News show that with interest the association could have raised close to 1 billion rand. The manager wants Sama to return the money.
Vosloo maintains that Sama’s conduct was illegal as he simply ignored that the Labor Relations Act requires unions to be independent and operate as independent organizations controlled by members and elected officials. Sama and the union are governed by different laws, with the association regulated by the Companies Law.
In response to the demand letters seen by Eyewitness News, Sama’s lawyers bizarrely argued that the union was never in operation, nor did it function, and therefore could not deliver the union’s records to the administrator as required.
Furthermore, he said that Vosloo would do well to properly consider the legal position before starting the liquidation process, as it might not be as easy as he wanted. The battle is expected to be heard in court soon. When Vosloo petitioned the court for an order to force Sama to hand over all the necessary documents, Sama argued that they did not exist. In that case, Labor Court Judge Andre van Niekerk ruled in favor of the administrator.
The judge did not hold back, saying that Sama claiming that there was no union and that there were no union members was wishful thinking at best, mass deception at worst, and possibly fraud perpetrated in the Labor Register. , the bargaining councils and other parts of the councils and union members.
Vosloo also described in court documents how Sama had constantly frustrated his efforts to carry out his mandate.
In May, the Labor Court granted Samatu and the administrator an order forcing Sama to hand over various records, including union membership databases and financial statements. The following month, Sama appealed the decision of the Department of Health and the National Treasury to change the details of Sama’s monthly membership dues account to that of the union. Sama also lost this app.
When he applied to the High Court in July on the same matter, the judge described his actions as “forum shopping,” warning that the court had the right to protect itself against abuse.
Administrator Vosloo described in his court request that he sought to liquidate Sama that it was clear to him that the association was “very concerned” about losing access to and control of the income derived from the suspension order facilities for the subscriptions of the employed doctors. by the state that they were union members.
He also said that the professional body was trying to delay and frustrate the Samatu administration to withhold its revenue stream.
Sama has argued that he never intended to form a union, but rather a professional body for doctors in both the public and private sectors.
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