Cosatu’s racism rankles

Apart from haemorrhaging members and lacking the gumption to let go of the coat-tails of its rotten-to-the-core alliance partner, the ANC, Cosatu has now further besmirched its name by making racist comments about certain prominent individuals. The comments are so offensive one wonders if the organisation is not now recruiting members from the toxic Black First, Land First, or just borrowing its vocabulary.

The most outrageous attack was made on Michael Sun, the member of the mayoral committee for public safety in Johannesburg, who accepted a memorandum from Cosatu and the SACP in the absence of mayor Herman Mashaba on September 27.

Sun was referred to as a “fong kong”, “Mr Lee” and a “karate expert” in front of 1,000 marchers, including a silent and thus complicit Blade Nzimande.

One could be forgiven for thinking such derogatory comments would be uttered by a decidedly ignorant and unsophisticated member of Cosatu’s rank and file, but no — this was from none other than Cosatu’s Gauteng provincial secretary, Dumisani Dakile.

When asked to apologise, he refused, only to repeat his original comments. Such is the calibre of Cosatu’s senior officials.

A week to 10 days later, the “leadership” did indeed apologise, under some duress, but their abuse had already struck home. And Dakile? Well, he is still provincial secretary, so expect more of the same from him.

John Perry

Hartbeespoort