JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Security police Tuesday arrested the general secretary of South Africa's largest trade federation and two other union members, charging them with kidnapping and assault after they detained a suspected spy on duty outside the union offices.
Congress of South African Trade Unions General Secretary Jay Naidoo, Assistant General Secretary Sydney Mufamadi and a third union official were detained late Tuesday afternoon after holding the alleged spy for several hours at the COSATU offices downtown.
The three were later released on bail of approximately $600 after an emergency night hearing in Magistrate's Court.
'Having absolutely no confidence in the police, we took it upon ourselves to apprehend this person,' Naidoo told reporters as he and South African Communist Party member Geraldine Joselyn sat on either side of their trembling and occassionally weeping suspect.
Naidoo lashed out at police for failing to investigate union complaints of its members or members of the African National Congress being harassed or subject to attack, yet having the time to put police on surveillance duty.
'It's a sinister plot to destabilize progressive movements,' Naidoo said. 'I'm aware the building has been under surveillance for the past couple days.'
Security police later surrounded the downtown office building and arrested Naidoo, Mufamadi and Baba Schalk, a member of the union's media section, and took them to police headquarters where they could be detained for up to 48 hours before appearing in court, a union spokesman said.
The black constable, identified as Joseph Maleka, told reporters he had been recruited by the police to monitor the movements of Joselyn, who works in the SACP offices in the same building that houses COSATU National Union of Mineworkers.
He carried a two-way radio and a photograph of Joselyn when he was nabbed at a garage near the the office building, Naidoo said.
Police confirmed he was a constable.
'This is not an operation related to an unrest situation but criminal charges that we are investigating,' Police spokesman Col. Frans Malherbe said after leading the raid on the COSATU offices.
'One of our police constables was allegedly removed at about 11:30 a.m. from Rissik Street by union members, taken to their headquarters and allegedly assaulted,' he said.
Saying he feared publication of his photograph in local newspapers would prompt township activists to burn his house down or kill his mother, a visibly frightened Maleka shielded his face with a sweater during the earlier press conference.
Witnesses said burly men in the room with Naidoo forced the suspect's arms away from his face, grabbed his hair to pull his head up to face photographers -- action evidently giving rise to the assault charges.
