Unions say no to Zuma May Day address
Cosatu-aligned unions do not want President Jacob Zuma to address the official May 1 celebrations taking place in the Free State next week.
Two Cosatu affiliates, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union and the Communication Workers Union, have written to the federation, indicating that they would prefer it if Zuma did not address them.
Cosatu has called on Zuma to resign or be pushed out of office. Unions are concerned that their members may react negatively to the president.
However, the “Ace factor” in the province may still come into play.
Free State chairman Ace Magashule is a staunch Zuma backer and is understood to be pulling out all the stops to ensure that Zuma backers are brought in to counter any anti-Zuma sentiment at the rally.
This could mean another divisive public event in which ANC succession politics comes to the fore — akin to the memorial services of ANC stalwart Ahmed Kathrada and the wreath-laying ceremony
of former South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Chris Hani.
Cosatu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said on Tuesday the federation had invited alliance partners — the ANC and the SACP — to the celebrations.
“They have a right to deploy whoever they want.”
ANC spokeswoman Khusela Sangoni said on Thursday the ANC was still finalising its deployments for May Day.
Pamla would not be drawn on whether Cosatu affiliates had indicated that their members did not want Zuma to address the gathering.
The ANC’s succession battle is dividing Cosatu, with its president Sdumo Dlamini under fire for his continued support of Zuma, in defiance of Cosatu’s central executive committee decision. Insiders in the federation told Business Day Cosatu had been advised by allies in the ANC and the SACP not to axe Dlamini at a coming central committee meeting — the federation’s mid-term policy gathering and a decision-making body between elective conferences.
“Let us not have another Madisha moment,” a senior Cosatu leader, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
Willie Madisha was removed as Cosatu president when he supported former president Thabo Mbeki in the run-up to the ANC’s Polokwane conference, at which Zuma ascended to the helm of the party.
The trade federation had at the time thrown its support behind Zuma.
The ANC’s succession race is weighing on its allies both in Cosatu and the SACP.
The frontrunners for the race are Ramaphosa and former AU Commission chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Cosatu has openly come out in support of Ramaphosa, while Dlamini- Zuma is said to have her former husband’s backing, and also that of the ruling party’s youth and women’s leagues.
The anti-Zuma forces in the alliance have been emboldened by Ramaphosa’s hardline stance on state capture and corruption, which he took at a recent Chris Hani memorial lecture.