Cape Town – Cosatu plans to apply for a Cape high court interdict to stop the sale of the Golden Arrow bus company to black empowerment consortium Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) and Mettle for R270 million. In a statement yesterday, Cosatu’s Western Cape general secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, upped the ante in a war of words with Marcel Golding, the former unionist and chairman of HCI. “This is a classic case of David versus Goliath, or workers competing against a powerful company that owns e.tv and uses it to misrepresent the facts,” he said. HCI owns 50.2 percent of e.tv, as well as 49.6 percent of Mettle. Ehrenreich said Golden Arrow’s workers had challenged the bus company to call for offers from the two competing bidders and to put these to an arbitrator. He said workers from various unions had committed themselves to fight for Golden Arrow and to provide an “improved public transport system”. Ehrenreich emphasised that Golden Arrow workers supported the idea of a cooperative and would seek a meeting with the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union to assure it there was no conflict within Cosatu. Cosatu also planned to lodge a complaint with the competition commission. Attempts to reach John Copelyn, HCI’s chief executive, for comment proved unsuccessful.

Source: SAPA