I won’t lie for Zuma, Vavi warns
Cosatu chief says he will campaign for the ANC — but with conditions
COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi will abide by the federation’s decision to campaign for the ANC but says his comrades should not expect him to lie for President Jacob Zuma’s administration.
Vavi, who recently resumed his duties after spending months on suspension, said he was bound by the Cosatu central executive committee (CEC) decision to back the ANC even though he believed that supporting the ruling party’s election manifesto amounted to the labour movement “committing class suicide”.
Cosatu declared its approval of the ANC manifesto — which is largely based on the National Development Plan, which Vavi opposes— while he was on suspension.
In an interview with the Sunday Times on Friday, Vavi said it was unfair of some of his supporters to expect him to distance himself from a decision that had been taken by a majority within Cosatu.
“This is why I am quarrelling with people who are calling me a traitor because the expectation from their side is, ‘Our principled Superman should come back and call a press conference to announce that all those decisions by the CEC were null and void,’” he said.
Cosatu’s biggest affiliate — and Vavi’s staunchest backer — the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, has called on its members not to support the ANC in the elections.
But Vavi said: “I can’t, I won’t campaign against the ANC in this election. I am not going to take up and say the whole thing is a sell-out arrangement.
“I have to respect the decisions of the organisation.”
He said his support for the ruling party was not unconditional.
“But I have said there has to be a condition; please don’t expect me to say the unemployment of 34.1% is a good story to tell, I will refuse.
“Nor would I say the decent work agenda is on course when more and more workers are being casualised and being employed by labour brokers and sub-contracted.
“Don’t tell me that there is a good story to tell when 50% of South African workers are earning below R3 000 a month . . . That is not a good story to tell. It is a terrible story of inequalities. No one must ask us to lie,” he said.
Cosatu has deployed Vavi as its main speaker at its May Day rally in Port Elizabeth where, the federation’s leaders say, he will be expected to tell the Numsa-dominated gathering to support the ANC at the polls on May 7.
Vavi said May Day this year came at a crucial time in Cosatu’s history.
“This May Day is going to be the most difficult one from that perspective of the divisions as well as be-
That is not a good story to tell. It is a terrible story of inequalities
cause of the implications of every word you utter, not just now, but 10 years down the line.
“This is the approach I have taken . . . If I must pursue unity, there is going to be a price to pay. The price will include that I must respect, even though I don’t agree with, the choices the CEC has made,” he said.
The ANC brokered a two-week truce between Vavi’s supporters and the backers of his opponent, Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini, under which Vavi has resumed his duties at Cosatu House while the ANC seeks a solution to the leadership differences that have crippled the federation.
Vavi believes the process should be given a chance even though there are deeply held suspicions on both sides.
“Hopefully it is just the beginning to a permanent solution, but there is no solution on the table and the public must not be misled by a sense that there is peace going towards May Day, no.”
Vavi spent much of the day yes- terday at a Cosatu provincial executive committee meeting in the Eastern Cape trying to broker a deal that would allow Numsa members in the province to participate in the Port Elizabeth rally.
He said he would push ahead with unity talks even though he believed some of his opponents were planning to have him ousted soon after the elections. “We should give this process a chance because we are already paying a high price for not having a unified federation. It is going to take us the next decade, or even more.” He called the Cosatu divisions a serious setback for workers.