Vavi allies pin hopes on special congress
ZWELINZIMA Vavi’s supporters need just two more affiliates to force trade federation Cosatu to convene a special congress where they hope to get him reinstated as general secretary.
Pro-Vavi unions in the labour federation want a special congress because they believe it will overturn last month’s decision to suspend the leader following his office-sex scandal.
According to Cosatu’s constitution, seven of the current 19 affiliates have to petition Cosatu House for a special congress for the meeting to take place.
So far, according to Vavi lobbyists, five unions support the call.
They are the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa), the South African Municipal Workers’ Union, the Food and Allied Workers Union, nurses’ union Denosa and soccer players’ union Safpu.
“Just because only three unions have announced [their support] doesn’t mean that they are the only ones. We also have the support of Denosa and Safpu,” said a Cosatu leader who did not wish to be named.
But if they get two additional unions to support the bid, Vavi’s backers still face another hurdle. Some of the affiliates said to be sympathetic to him are behind with their monthly subscriptions to Cosatu, which renders them ineligible to participate in making decisions at the congress.
A Numsa leader sympathetic to Vavi said these unions were being encouraged to sort out their finances.
“We’ve told them to get their house in order and then we take it from there,” the official said.
As part of the multipronged strategy to have Vavi reinstated, Numsa announced plans on Friday to take Cosatu to court if it refused to annul l ast month’s decision to suspend Vavi.
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said his union would argue that the Cosatu central executive committee meeting that took the decision to suspend Vavi had not followed proper procedures.
“If they fail to undo that meeting then we will be left with no option. We might have to approach a court of law and challenge everything that took place in that meeting. Vavi can’t be elected by a conference of workers and then get removed in a boardroom. That is tantamount to stealing the outcome of workers and to subvert their own revolution,” said Jim.
Vavi’s suspension has caused major divisions in Cosatu and the broader ANC-led tripartite alliance.
Numsa boycotted an important preelection alliance summit.
As alliance leaders were meeting in Pretoria, Jim launched a scathing attack on ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and South African Communist Party boss Blade Nzimande, blaming them for the divisions in Cosatu. “This agenda [to divide] the federation has got some people from the ANC and the SACP directly involved. We think that what Gwede and Blade did . . . they could not hide it . . . they are directly involved in dividing the federation,” said Jim.
Mantashe hit back at Jim late on Friday, saying the Numsa leader was making him a “scapegoat” for Cosatu’s problems.
“[Jim’s accusation] is a smoke screen. Comrades are fighting and they look for any scapegoat they can find. They must not use us as scapegoats. We must deal with the problems in the federation.”
Mantashe said no ANC secretarygeneral would work to divide and destroy Cosatu because the federation is an important ally of the ANC.
“A divided Cosatu is bad for the ANC. So any secretary-general of the ANC who will spend time and energy dividing Cosatu would be a fool. I would be a fool if I do so. I’m not a fool. I wouldn’t destroy something that helps me. It’s like setting on fire a car you’re driving,” said Mantashe.
Despite the fallout over the Vavi issue, Numsa was the only affiliate that failed to be part of Cosatu’s 63-member delegation to the summit.
Acting Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali revealed that Numsa had sent an apology to be excused from the meeting because it was dealing with countrywide strikes in its sector.