The fractures widen
The Congress of SA Trade Union’s (Cosatu) special national congress last week was meant to be a unifying moment for the 30year-old federation, after more than two years of debilitating infighting.
This was not to be. Instead, the gathering in Midrand revealed further deep rifts within the two factions in Cosatu — one aligned to Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini and the other supporting expelled general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and axed affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa).
The starkest division was in the largest industrial union left in the federation, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Last month, the union’s Free State secretary David Sipunzi ousted long-standing general secretary Frans Baleni after a well organised campaign. Sipunzi’s election was welcomed by the Vavi group in Cosatu as Sipunzi’s approach to the factional fight in the federation was more conciliatory, in contrast to that of his predecessor.
Behind the scenes, Cosatu leaders say Sipunzi was working with Vavi in a bid to help him return to the federation.
However, Sipunzi stepped into a leadership core at the NUM that remained hostile to Vavi and Numsa. The NUM, under Baleni, was at the forefront of the push to expel Numsa, which it had long accused of “poaching” its members from the mining sector and at Eskom.
Sipunzi and the newly reconfigured NUM were widely expected by the Vavi group to be its trump card at the special national congress.
The first day of the gathering was delayed by a lengthy discussion on credentials. Unions aligned to Vavi and Numsa, including the Food & Allied Workers Union and the SA Commercial, Catering & Allied Workers Union argued that Cosatu’s second deputy president, Zingiswa Losi, no longer legitimately held her position as she had been fired from Numsa — the union from which she was elected onto her Cosatu position.
Unions aligned to Dlamini disagreed, saying her position was confirmed by the federation’s central executive committee and that she was currently a shop steward with police union Popcru.
Sipunzi stepped in with a compromise — he proposed that the Vavi-aligned unions accept that Losi remain part of the congress in her position as second deputy president if the Dlamini-aligned unions agreed to consider discussing Vavi and Numsa’s expulsion as part of the agenda. The two items were not on the agenda of the special meeting.
But the congress rejected Sipunzi’s proposal and the credentials issue went to a vote. The result revealed the tensions in the NUM itself following the elections of its new leaders. Sipunzi and his leadership core voted against the credentials being adopted — but the ordinary delegates from the union voted with Dlamini-aligned unions.
Cracks also appeared in the unions opposing Vavi in the run-up to the congress.
The day before the event began, shop stewards from the SA Transport & Allied Workers Union — also among Vavi and Numsa’s staunchest critics — were pepper sprayed in a heated meeting in which they disagreed with their leaders.
The special congress also revealed that while unions such as the Democratic Nursing Union of SA (Denosa) and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) disagreed with the expulsion of Numsa and Vavi, they did not agree on the creation of a federation to counter Cosatu and on Numsa’s setting up a political party to take on Cosatu ally, the African National Congress, in elections.
On Monday, Numsa leaders met unions that had previously supported them. They also lodged a section 77 notice to hold a daylong strike against corruption. None of the unions had indicated by Monday whether they were willing to join the strike requested by Numsa or whether they would join a workers’ summit, to be convened by Numsa and Vavi to set up an alternative to Cosatu.
The uncertainty besetting the country’s largest labour federation is also set to have an impact on processes within the National Economic Development & Labour Council (Nedlac) — which has traditionally resulted in smaller federations such as Fedusa and Nactu taking their cues on critical policy matters from Cosatu.
A possible new federation — which might result from unions such as Numsa aligning with Nactu, for instance, could further shift the power dynamics in the unions and in Nedlac.
The special national congress last week showed that it might be a long while before stability returns to the increasingly fracturing labour space in SA.