Concerned members of the Film & Electronic Media Chamber of the MAPPP SETA (Media Advertising Printing Publishing Packaging Sector Education Training Authority) are organising a legal protest action to take place outside the SETA’s Johannesburg offices on Friday, 16 March.
The action is in response to the fact the SETA CEO Melanie Bernard-Fryer has been suspended for reporting alleged irregularities to the National Prosecuting Authority. The suspension comes after Bernard-Fryer, who says she has been victimised, was put on forced sick leave early this year.
Also to be addressed by the protest action are the alleged financial irregularities regarding SETA money allocated for training in the print and publishing sectors.
A Memorandum of Demands will be handed to the SETA during the protest action, which will take place from 11h00-13h00 on the corner of Coombe Place and Rivonia Road, Rivonia (very near to the N3 highway, opposite the Peugot dealership).
The Memorandum of Demands states:
We, the undersigned, demand under the Skills Development Act, The Public Finance Management Act, The Promotion of Access to Information Act, The Employment Equity Act and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, specifically the Bill of Rights that the following actions are taken within 7 days:
The Chief Executive Officer of the Media, Advertising, Print, Packaging and Publishing Sectional Education Training Authority, Ms Melanie Bernard-Fryer shall be re-instated without prejudice and protected on a 24-hour per day basis until further notice, paid for by the SETA
2. The current Chairperson of the Authority, Mr. Martin Deysel shall be removed from office
The current Accounting Authority and Executive Committee shall be dissolved
The Minister of Labour shall put the SETA under administration within 72 hours and appoint an administrator by the end of business on Friday 23rd March 2007
The administrator shall prioritize the writing of a new Constitution that would see a full restructuring of all governance structures, the equitable representation and treatment of all 7 chambers of the SETA, the supremacy of accountability and transparency and the creation of systems to monitor these structures
The Minister shall order a full, independent forensic investigation of the entire operations of the MAPPP SETA since its inception
No further payments shall be made to the Cross Media Training College until all investigations are complete and any payments made in the last 60 days shall be repaid to the SETA
The grievances of the MAPPP SETA staff shall be resolved and no further harassment of the staff shall be instigated or tolerated.
The Auditors who were engaged to conduct forensic audits of the CreateSA project (Grant Thornton et al) shall immediately hand over all the results of such an investigation to the National Prosecuting Authority, as is their duty under law, regardless of what payment has or has not been made.
If these demands are not met by midnight on Thursday the 22nd March 2007, a campaign of rolling mass action will be undertaken by our organisations and all their affiliates.
The Memorandum is signed on behalf of The South African Scriptwriter’s Union and The Cultural Workers Union of South Africa.
Says Nicola Rauch, National Director of the South African Scriptwriting Institute, who is one of the driving forces behind the action: “The logo of organisations in support of the action will be included on the Memorandum of Demands. We are also asking for contributions to a protest fund from any organisation that is able to give. Any organisation that donates any amount will be sent a full financial report of all expenditure and may ask for details at any time (bank statement, supporting invoices etc). We will supply invoices for any amount donated and anticipate that this will be spent on T-shirts for the protest action Marshalls (who need to, by law, be well identified as such), hire of portable toilets, arrangements to provide water for participants (it may be very hot and it is midday), stand-by medical officer, etc. and hopefully, flyers for distribution.’
The Bank Account Details: Standard Bank, Melville Branch, 000601, Acc 00-811-846-9 in name of SASWA. For more information please contact Rauch on 084 429 0597 or saswadirector@telkomsa.net.
