Unproven rumours

AFTER all the hype – column centimetres and hours of broadcast – Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has survived to fight another day. In truth it was always going to be thus.

No one in the ANC or the South African Communist Party or the labour giant, has the courage of their convictions to actually get rid of the man they so virulently hate.

The key issue is whether Vavi sold the Cosatu headquarters at a lower price to a company that employed his stepdaughter. He’s also been accused of political disloyalty to boot.

Many believe this is a political ploy to get rid of someone who is widely hailed – among many Cosatu members and ordinary South Africans – as the caring and committed face of the union federation in a sea of greed and tenderpreneurism.

In this guise he is commonly pitted against the tripartite alliance’s Number one, Jacob Zuma, who many ordinary members are too scared to challenge.

The biggest fear of the haters is that should Vavi be forced out, he might fatally cleave the all important and historic alliance less than 12 months before the next general election. There is another side to it. Perhaps Vavi’s detractors are right, that he did indeed behave inappropriately in terms of the sale of the building.

If that is the case, then the federation should not be looking at a political solution to a criminal problem. What it should do is make its information available to the proper law enforcement agencies to act. This though would force them to show their hand and if their evidence is found to be spurious, this might have the same effect as stripping him of his office and expelling him from the federation – and the alliance too.

Nobody has the stomach for this kind of risk, which leaves Vavi in a Catch 22 situation, trapped in limbo as his reputation is sullied by unproven rumours spread by faceless foes. Nobody deserves this. Vavi certainly doesn’t. His detractors should be ashamed of their cowardice.