Senior Unisa lecturer Dr. Rendani Netanda and two others were allegedly assaulted, hacked and stabbed at the head office of the Academic and Professional Staff Association (Apsa) in Pretoria last week.
Most of Apsa’s national leadership are academics employed by Unisa’s main campus in Pretoria.
Netanda said he and two colleagues had gone to Apsa’s head office to have termination forms signed for members they were recruiting into their new union to be known as the Academic Staff and Educators’ Union.
‘We didn’t get what we’d come for and we were told to leave after being informed that the Apsa president, Prof Tshepo Lephakga, wasn’t available to talk to us. As we were about to leave in the car, I was suddenly grabbed and assaulted,’ said Netanda.
‘I just missed being struck by some object one of our assailants was holding and managed to flee. The attackers then went for my two colleagues, who were severely beaten. Their wounds show that they were also hacked and stabbed.’
Netanda accused Apsa of contravening its constitution and refusing to be held to account. He alleged that Apsa had not reported to members on its finances since 2016.
‘I was also suspended for revealing that at some point, money was going through the general secretary’s account, from which it was transferred into the union’s account. That’s how the union operates. If you ask too many questions, you get suspended and we couldn’t take it anymore, so we decided to go our separate way,’ he said.
Apsa general secretary Boitumelo Senokoane said: ‘Former Apsa members, who opened their own union, invaded Apsa headquarters on October 30 and held leadership hostage, and assaulted officials and office bearers. Staff members were injured.’
Image: Wikimedia Commons: A. Bailey, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0