No wonder Cosatu in tatters, if it ignores its own rules

THE swank first-floor boardroom of the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu’s) R50m headquarters plays venue to meetings of the federation’s top decision-making structure, its central executive committee.

In March 2012, Cosatu opened the plush building, a celebration attended by President Jacob Zuma, who flanked general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.

The new building came complete with a biometric fingerprint access system and thick, soft carpets, warm lighting and embossed glass doors.

It stood in stark contrast to the old headquarters — creaky lifts, worn brown carpets and easily accessible from the street.

At the unveiling of the new building, Zuma said no one in a democratic SA would bomb the new Cosatu House — as its old headquarters had been by the apartheid government in 1987.

But, as they opened the new building, a metaphoric bomb was about to drop on the federation, which continues to threaten its existence. Five months after the unveiling of Cosatu’s new spoils, the Marikana massacre threw wide open the problems in the federation and its unions festering beneath the surface and it has been in decline ever since, even as SA commemorates the second anniversary of the massacre tomorrow.

Each leadership meeting that has taken place since last year was consumed with the deep chasm steadily growing between leaders of the federation, based on their oscillation between militancy and conservatism in their approach to their ally, the African National Congress (ANC).

This week yet another meeting passed with the federation unmoved from the paralysis that took hold in February last year.

At the same time, one of its proudest sons, former National Union of Mineworkers general secretary Cyril Ramaphosa, took the stand at the Marikana commission and was grilled for two days on his role and influence in the fateful events of August 16 2012, when police killed 34 workers.

It was surreal to watch the man who led the mining strike of 1987 being grilled on whether he sought to protect his own financial interests by using his political clout to coerce the police to put a quick and violent end to the strike.

Ramaphosa is also leading an ANC task team that is trying to help Cosatu resolve its internal strife.

Cosatu bosses told journalists this week that a special national congress, requested by nine unions, was still not a viable solution to the impasse in the federation because it did not guarantee “unity”, which is what all leaders claim to want.

But this desperate resolve to “create” unity is what landed Cosatu in this quagmire in the first place. Its top leadership patched together a deal to ensure all leaders were uncontested in the 2012 leadership conference, despite the deep disagreement between leaders on the trajectory of the federation.

Cosatu failed to test the views of its members on which direction they preferred — and it is doing so again by failing to allow a special national congress to proceed.

The argument against it — also by senior ANC leaders — was that it would result in “blood on the floor”, with one faction purging the other.

Cosatu’s national office bearers — including Vavi — said this week that the federation was at risk of splitting should a special national congress be held. This left many scratching their heads in confusion as the only requirement for the convening of a special national congress in Cosatu’s constitution is a written request for one by a third of affiliates.

The explanation by leaders is that a third of affiliates represent the minority view, not the majority, which is why the congress should not be held.

Yet at the same time leaders say the clause in its constitution is in place to protect the minority and that the congress would yield an outcome favourable to the majority. The federation is in effect ignoring its own constitution. No wonder it is in tatters.

One was left wondering this week whether the polished Ramaphosa, in a dark suit and orange tie, was not a shadow of the former worker leader; and whether the old Cosatu, housed in a dilapidated building, was not more principled than the present one, which cannot even play by its own rules.