The Congress of SA Trade Unions (COSATU) and one of its affiliates, (SACTWU) are at loggerheads following the latter’s intention to stake a claim in the gambling industry. Cosatu has opposed a plan by the SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) to invest in gambling machines in the Western Cape. The congress is disputing a plan that would see Sactwu having a stake in rolling out limited pay-out gambling machines. The licence was awarded to Hosken Consolidated Investments Limited. Hosken is a company in which Sactwu has a significant stake, and Cosatu fears the poor will be made poorer through gambling. Reacting to the gambling plan, Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven regretted on SABC’s Morning Live show yesterday that the gambling company which had links to Sactwu, was bringing gambling to the doorsteps of the poor. “It is morally wrong that union investment companies should invest in gambling,” Craven said. “We are in the process of trying to make sure that all companies in which union funds are invested, use that money in socially responsible ways”. The congress, along with the Western Cape Gambling Board, the Association of Democratic Lawyers, religious leaders and human rights activists, was yesterday expected to debate the advent of the gambling machines in the region.

Source: Citizen – Thomas Mabasa