Sex, Vavi and the shadow of a long-term threat to Zuma
Cosatu boss’s supporters may plot vengeance if he is removed, writes S’thembiso Msomi
IHAVE had three separate conversations with Zwelinzima Vavi about sex. The first must have been in May 2006, just days after Jacob Zuma, then the ANC deputy president, was acquitted on rape charges.
I had gone to see the Cosatu general secretary at what was then his office in Biccard Street in downtown Johannesburg to ask if — given some of the embarrassing admissions made by Zuma during the trial — the federation was not considering dumping him as their preferred presidential candidate.
Surely, I argued, the fact that Zuma had admitted to having sex with the daughter of a late comrade meant he was damaged goods and stood no chance of being voted ANC president at a party national conference to be held in Polokwane the following year.
Vavi took a deep breath and then started: “Let’s look at the facts here . . .”
It was too long ago to remember the rest of his exact words now, but he went on to argue that all that Zuma was guilty of was having sex with a woman who was not his wife and without using a condom.
If we used that as our only criteria when choosing leaders, he further suggested, we would have very few politicians.
Besides, Vavi added, Zuma had apologised and most Cosatu members had forgiven him.
History proved him right, of course, as Zuma rose to become president of both the ANC and the country.
I found myself back in the same office one Saturday morning in August of the same year. This time my questions to the Cosatu boss were of a more personal nature.
With a month to go before a national congress where Vavi was
Vavi, they claimed, used the card to hire luxury vehicles for a girlfriend with whom he also travelled abroad
to run for his third term as general secretary, his opponents revealed that he was being investigated by the then Cosatu president, Willie Madisha, for alleged abuse of a Cosatu credit card.
Vavi, they claimed, used the card to hire luxury vehicles for a girlfriend with whom he also travelled abroad without the federation’s consent.
What made the claims sensational was that the girlfriend was an exwife of a union member who blamed Vavi for the break-up of their marriage.
Although refusing to confirm or deny the affair at the time, Vavi was adamant that attempts to “embarrass me by splashing my personal life in newspapers” would not jeop- ardise his chances at the congress.
He was proved right. Cosatu delegates re-elected him unopposed and Madisha was later chased out of the trade union federation.
The third encounter was more recent and took place in his posh ninth-floor office at Cosatu’s new headquarters in Jorissen Street, Braamfontein. It was a Friday, a day before shocking claims (known to the Sunday Times, but not yet in the public domain) hit the headlines. A junior Cosatu staffer had alleged that Vavi had raped her.
As Vavi vehemently denied the rape allegation (which was later dropped) and gave his version of events, one could not help but notice that, though defiant against those he believed were “exploiting” the issue in order to have him ousted, he was really rattled.
Prepared as he said he was for the political fight that was to ensue as a result of what he described as a “brief encounter” in his accuser’s third-floor office, Vavi could not say with the confidence he had displayed on the two other occasions that he would survive the storm.
As he escorted me and colleague Caiphus Kgosana out of his office, there were moments when he spoke like a man who had accepted that his days at the federation were numbered. He spoke with regret of how the new Cosatu headquarters — a building he wanted to leave as his “legacy” for the federation — was being used by his enemies to justify his removal.
The events of the past week suggest that Vavi, the most outspoken and popular trade unionist in the country, has every reason to believe his days as Cosatu boss are numbered.
The vast majority of Cosatu’s 21 affiliates supported his suspension during a special central executive committee meeting this week.
Now that he plans to challenge the legality of that decision in the courts, they are likely to back efforts to have him expelled.
Vavi’s spectacular fallout with some of Cosatu’s major affiliates, including the powerful National Union of Mineworkers, of which he is a product, has been long coming.
The latest sex scandal has served only to exacerbate a conflict that has been brewing since 2010, when Vavi began to publicly criticise Zuma’s administration and the ANC.
The fallout has far-reaching consequences not just for Cosatu — which, for the first time in its 28year history, is facing the real possibility of a split, with its secondlargest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa), threatening to break away — but for the ANC and the country as a whole.
Cosatu, despite its militant rhetoric and occasional strikes, has played a crucial role in maintaining labour-market stability.
Its implosion, as was demonstrated in Marikana and the rest of the platinum belt, is likely to lead to the rise of smaller but more militant “workerist” unions which have no consideration for the long-term harm their high wage demands may do to the economy.
Even if Vavi’s opponents succeed in keeping the federation largely united after kicking him out, their close ties to Luthuli House and hesitance to criticise the Union Buildings is likely to turn Cosatu
We would have very few politicians if we condemned all those who behaved as Zuma had done
into what Vavi calls “the labour desk” of the ANC, without much of the credibility it has enjoyed over the past two decades.
For the ANC, the first negative effects of the Cosatu crisis are likely to be felt in next year’s general elections, with those angered by Vavi’s removal refusing to campaign for the party.
In all previous elections, Cosatu affiliates volunteered their members and donated other resources to help the ANC win.
It is anyone’s guess how the party would fare in highly contested constituencies such as Port Elizabeth, where there is a strong Numsa presence, if unionists refused to campaign.
The long-term effects, however, are likely to be felt in two years’ time as various factions within the ruling party start preparing for life after Zuma.
Vavi’s ousting from Cosatu, amid claims of an “intelligence report” alleging that he works for foreign powers, could be to Zuma what the late police minister Steve Tshwete’s 2001 claims of a “plot to overthrow” government were to then president Thabo Mbeki.
Tshwete’s allegations that ANC leaders-turned-businessmen — Tokyo Sexwale, Cyril Ramaphosa and Mathews Phosa — wanted to illegally remove Mbeki was later cited by party members as evidence that the then president abused state power against those he saw as his opponents. This belief played a great part in Mbeki’s unceremonious removal from power in 2008.
Vavi’s removal, especially following the expulsion of former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and his subsequent problems with the taxman, could intensify similar perceptions about Zuma.
If Vavi decides to stay on in the tripartite alliance even after being ousted as Cosatu general secretary, in a few years’ time he could emerge as one of those who would be seeking to do to Zuma what they did to Mbeki in 2008.