BY DIANNE HAWKER
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has apologised to City of Joburg councillor Michael Sun “for any hurt or embarrassment” caused when members made disparaging comments during a recent anti-state capture protest.
Image: Jackie Clausen
During the protest‚ which took place last Wednesday‚ Sun had come on the podium to accept Cosatu’s memorandum on behalf of the City of Joburg.
Members of the union marched to various government buildings to protest state capture. The union had wanted mayor Herman Mashaba to collect a memorandum‚ but Sun arrived instead and was met with racial slurs.
Mashaba had written an open letter to Cosatu demanding an apology over the comments.
“The Congress of South African Trade Unions has noted the allegations of racism levelled against one of its officials during a very successful anti-state capture and corruption march in the City of Johannesburg last week.
“After investigating the allegations‚ we want to unreservedly apologise to Mr Michael Sun‚ the public safety member of the mayoral committee in Johannesburg‚ for any hurt and embarrassment caused by the statements from our official‚” the union said in a statement.
The union said it would not condone racism. “We have concluded that the statements made against Michael Sun were intolerant‚ patronising and hurtful and could be easily interpreted as bigoted. That is not what our organisation stands for.”
The union said the “unfortunate distraction does not give mayor Herman Mashaba a get-out clause though. We still want him to deal with the issues raised by the workers during last week’s strike‚” the union said.
-TimesLIVE
