Vavi: 'Crass materialism' endangering ANC
“Crass materialism” and “tender entrepreneurs” in the African National Congress (ANC) leadership are endangering the ruling party, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Thursday.
“The new tendency is trying hard to take us back to the politics of labelling, back-stabbing, rumour and scandal-mongering, marginalisation and the closure of state for free and democratic debate.”
This “small right-wing tendency” is being led by materialists and tender entrepreneurs. It was not supported by the majority of the ANC’s leadership, but there were worrying signs that this tendency was succeeding in silencing most ANC leaders.
Vavi was referring to a group hoping to oust current ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe in the party’s 2012 elective conference.
“As we have said before, this small group is impatient and is not even prepared to wait for the normal process of nomination, and given a space they may move a vote of no confidence to those they regard as sitting ducks.”
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has come out in support of current Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to replace Mantashe in 2012.
Vavi said Cosatu supported the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa’s (Numsa) position on the matter.
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“Not just the president failed to defend the secretary general, but the national executive committee as a whole.
“It’s no longer a Numsa issue. It’s a Cosatu issue.”
Vavi warned that the action of this group would catapult the ANC into “unprecedented crisis” and may destroy its unity and cohesion forever.
He, however, reiterated Cosatu’s commitment to the ruling alliance with the ANC and the South African Communist Party.
Vavi was speaking after Cosatu’s first central executive committee meeting of the year.
He reiterated Cosatu’s disappointment at Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech and at Eskom’s approved tariff hikes for the next three years.—Sapa
