The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) through its National Treasurer comrade Mphumzi Maqungo has in a principled and genuine manner, publicly called for the immediate suspension of the Curator of Sizwe Medical Aid Scheme, Dr Ngubekhaya Gobingca.
We have also consistently said that we do not want to run a public trial against the Curator, since this might lead to temptations of dealing with the merits and demerits of the allegations. We have said in lieu of the fact we don’t want to compromise the internal process that needs to be discharged by the Board of Trustees.
We are however concerned that the Registrar of Council of Medical Schemes (CMS) is mishandling this matter. The Registrar’s indecisiveness has not helped, but has only created more confusion, and doubt about their role and independence culminating, in prejudicing the rights of the members of the Sizwe medical scheme.
Surprisingly the Registrar of the CMS has not acted swiftly to our call to take action by suspending the Curator Dr Gobingca. Interestingly the CMS, through its internal correspondences, in principle agreed to the suspension of the Curator.
The question that needs to be posed now: why are they not processing the decision? Is it because of hidden and selective interests? We deserve to know the truth.
We remain concerned that the owners of the Scheme, the workers, through what should have already been an elected Board of Trustees, are being undermined and not taken serious by the CMS and the Curator himself.
The members with the written support of in excess of a thousand signatures wrote to the CMS demanding the Annual General Meeting (AGM), scheduled for tomorrow Friday 28 June 2013, to be postponed due to a number of allegations related to the Curators alleged unlawful actions.
The postponement was going to allow a Special General Meeting to be convened to appoint the new Board of Trustees, hold a legitimate AGM and to undertake a transparent process in looking to the litany of allegations directed towards the Curator, as codified in the dossier presented to the Registrar by the members.
Our workers have gone to exhaustive lengths and cost to follow the procedures allowed them under the protection of the Act to try and regain control of their fund, only to be swamped by complicated legalese and excuses from the Curator and the Registrar who himself claims he is appointed to protect the rights of the members.
We reiterate our call for the suspension of the Curator Dr Gobingca. We refuse to be bullied or blackmailed into attending secretive meetings, in dark places, in order to be pursued to abandon this call. The Fund is the collective property of our members, and as a union we should at all times safeguard their collective interests and rights.
Contact:
Mphumzi Maqungo
National Treasurer
Mobile: 0836766613
Tel: 0116891700
Or
Castro Ngobese
National Spokesperson
Mobile: 0810111137