Elated Vavi hails NUM ‘game-changer’
ZWELINZIMA Vavi’s chances of returning to Cosatu received a major boost when his ally David Siphunzi was elected general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers.
Siphunzi defeated President Jacob Zuma’s ally Frans Baleni by nine votes in a hotly contested election on Friday.
Siphunzi was reportedly unhappy when Vavi and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa were expelled from Cosatu. The expulsions have threatened to split the federation.
Siphunzi said yesterday that Cosatu would not achieve unity unless it renewed talks with Vavi and Numsa.
“We’ll have to sit down as the new leadership and see what can be done. If you talk unity, you cannot talk unity at the exclusion of the other parties,” he said.
His election has strengthened the number of Vavi supporters in Cosatu’s central executive committee. It also means the NUM would go to next month’s Cosatu special national congress deeply divided, as Baleni ally Piet Matosa was elected unopposed as union president.
Vavi’s backers want the STIRRINGS: New NUM president Piet Matosa speaks to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa at the NUM’s 15th national conference in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg congress to reverse his expulsion and that of Numsa. They also want fresh elections to unseat Cosatu president and Vavi rival S’dumo Dlamini.
However, Vavi’s opponents are still in the majority.
Dlamini has agreed to stage the special national congress, but has insisted that the meet- ing would not elect leaders and Numsa would not be allowed to attend. Numsa plans to take Cosatu to court this week to force the leadership to allow it to participate in the congress.
An elated Vavi tweeted: “Election of David Siphunzi as GS of the NUM is an extremely significant development which may change course of history.”
Numsa leader Irvin Jim was as excited about the NUM outcome. “We are very inspired by the change of leadership within the NUM. Baleni and Slovo [Fikile Majola] . . . co-ordinated the expulsion of Numsa and that of Vavi. Now workers have rejected his leadership.”