/ 11 November 2016

​Unions could force Zuma showdown

Assessing the workers’ mood: President Jacob Zuma with Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini at the union federation’s elective congress in November last year.
Assessing the workers’ mood: President Jacob Zuma with Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini at the union federation’s elective congress in November last year.

A public call for President Jacob Zuma to step down will be debated by Cosatu affiliates at its central executive committee (CEC) meeting later this month, amid warnings by the trade union federation’s president that this could severely strain its ties to the ANC-led tripartite alliance.

The push for workers to voice their views on the president’s future, and who should succeed him, was reinvigorated when the National Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), after its national executive council (NEC) meeting on November  1, called on Zuma to resign and for his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, to take his place.

The Cosatu CEC meeting is set for November 21 and could have significant implications for the alliance, which Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini said is at its weakest point.

“If we pull in different directions as the alliance partners, we are weaker and that’s why Cosatu would want to contribute towards unity of the ANC in a positive way,” he said.

“We are very careful about our role. My wish, personally, is that Cosatu should not lose sight of that approach to unite. As to what will happen at the CEC, I cannot speculate because it’s a democratic process.”

Each union, regardless of its membership size, has equal status at the meeting, meaning a vote in favour of Cosatu publicly calling for the president to step down or remain in power could force the federation’s national leaders to take a stand.

“We cannot prevent the affiliates from discussing this matter but what is key at all times is that Cosatu has a role to unite the alliance and the ANC in particular,” Dlamini said.

Cosatu’s biggest unions said their branches are receiving a flurry of requests from members for the president to step down. Some believe the call for him to do so is legitimate although others view it as an attack on a democratically elected head of state.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) said Zuma’s reign has brought with it “trouble” and factionalism. “In principle, we agree that the president must just step aside. Under his leadership there are too many problems, including factions. He must just step aside and allow the organisation to function … because we are in trouble,” said CWU president Clyde Mervin.

The Democratic Nursing Union of South Africa (Denosa) has also raised concerns, but will not make a public call for Zuma to go.

“Denosa does agree that there are leadership challenges but … our mandate must come from branches on the ground before [we] can make any pronouncements,” said union president Simon Hlungwani.

But the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) defended Zuma. “No, no, no, we don’t agree,” said general secretary Zenzo Mahlangu. “We don’t think it’s the best way of dealing with things. We have said in the past that we don’t feel the labour movement should be making those calls.

“If we remember it was labour that pronounced, leading up to [the ANC’s 2007] Polokwane [conference], that particular people should be leaders. Now it’s labour today saying those people are the worst?” he added.

These views will be contested at the CEC meeting, where smaller affiliates such as Public Allied Workers Union of South Africa and the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union said they plan to ask the national office bearers to make a public proclamation, or even take a vote.

“Obviously we will push for Cosatu to adopt the stance of the majority of the unions in that CEC. If that means Zuma must go, then Cosatu should say so — if a majority of affiliates want that,” said one of the general secretaries, who asked to remain anonymous because he had not been mandated to speak to the media.

The debate on the president’s future is by no means a black-and-white discussion by the more powerful unions.

The national leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) would not be drawn on the issue, but its regional and youth structures have already started discussing it.

“The NUM is discussing the [public protector’s] State of Capture report and will pronounce on whether Zuma should go after its NEC meeting on November 25. The general feeling was that the president should be allowed to finish his term,” NUM spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said. “But now that other unions [such as Nehawu] have called for him to go, anything can happen.”

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, known to be a staunch Zuma supporter, confirmed that calls for the president to step down were being discussed, but union president Zizamele Cebekhulu would not divulge the details.

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union took a similar position and would not reveal the nature of discussions in its regions.

Cosatu’s Western Cape secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, said he could not speak on behalf of the federation’s affiliates but “my personal view is that the president in his conduct has deeply disappointed the country and he must step down”.