Vusi Nhlapo is either hailed as a hero or reviled as a mindless militant. Eddie Koch meets the man in charge of the union behind the conflict at Wits
BURLY, tough-talking, and uncompromising would be useful adjectives to describe Vusi Nhlapo, except for the fact that they belie an air of loneliness, a hint of vulnerability, that surrounds this union boss who is accused of bringing Wits University to its knees.
Nhlapo rose to prominence in the dramatic events of September last year when members of his union and a group of left-wing students banded together to smash windows, trash the campus and kidnap members of the administration in pursuit of demands that the university “transform” itself.
Police were called in. Students and workers were arrested. Nine union members, including the core of its campus leadership, were sacked. Since then the university has, in the eyes of some members of senate, gone into a state of crisis that shows in staff desertions, low morale and intermittent threats of further disturbances.
As president of the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) and its full-time shopsteward on the Wits campus, Nhlapo was either lionised as a working class hero or demonised as a mindless militant who wants to destroy the country’s most venerated institution of learning.
Both are stereotypes he is willing to nurture. “The tactics our members used are not comfortable ones. But I will always be with them, the grassroots. I cannot sit in the middle and mediate. I cannot give direction to our members by sitting on the fence,” he says.
“The only way to resolve this crisis and stabilise the situation is to allow the (dismissed) workers back and then to negotiate. The university must swallow its pride or go with its pride to the grave.”
Although such statements have earned him a ferocious reputation on the campus, Nhlapo displays a sophisticated awareness of the complex realities behind the dispute at Wits. And this, together with pressure from some old friends, has produced an apparent willingness to shift from confrontation to
The core problem, he believes, is that the university which was once a bastion of opposition to apartheid now lags behind the state in terms of its willingness to negotiate change with its students, workers and junior academic staff.
Alone among the country’s major universities, it has failed until recently to establish a “transformation forum”. These are committees made up of academics, students and workers with executive powers to promote affirmative action, a student admissions policy that takes into account the plight of poor families and a sound labour relations system.
The absence of such a body at Wits has generated two major points of friction. Efforts to set up a bursary and loan scheme for students from poverty-stricken families have stalled. And there is no effective system to to move unskilled workers up the job ladder.
“This is very unfair especially to black students, especially those from the rural areas who cannot afford to pay their admission fees. And we have members who have been in the same job for more than 15 years. This is the basis of our alliance with Sasco (the South African Students Congress).”
And, says Nhlapo, there is a paradox at Wits that lies at the heart of its labour woes. The university is the alma mater of sociologists, historians and lawyers who have played a key role in shaping the country’s post- 1979 collective bargaining system.
One of its law professors, for example, has just drafted the government’s new labour relations bill.
Yet in its own backyard the university’s administration has failed to create a system able to deal with issues that appear trite in comparison with the complex and violent conflicts that have to be dealt with in the country’s factories and mines on a daily basis.
These are views hotly contested by members of the university senate. Wits has been quick to recognise the union. It has well-established grievance and disciplinary procedures. Labour relations are benign when compared to other parts of the public sector, as evidenced by the fact the Nhlapo himself receives a salary while he does full-time union work.
Yet Nehawu’s members resort to assaults, litter campaigns, abductions and the destruction of campus property.
The only conclusion, they say, is that the union is unstable and incapable of dealing with blatant breaches of discipline on the part of its members.
Nhlapo’s organisation is, in the words of one university senator, an “outrider” union beyond the control of more seasoned leadership in the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
Unable to make much progress in the much harsher environs of the public sector, it has chosen Wits as the soft target on which to wreak its brand of
Another complication is that the union’s alliance with left-wing students bedevils the situation and undermines normal collective bargaining procedures.
The university was able, in the past, to deal with workers “normal” wage demands. But now that these have combined with student demands that threaten its fees structure — at a time when the state has cut back dramatically on financial subsidies — the situation becomes untenable.
Ironically, Nhlapo agrees with much of the prognosis.
“The problem with a union like Nehawu is that it was set up by Cosatu to organise on a terrain where everyone else was afraid to move, the public service that at that time was the heart of the National Party state,” he says.
“This union was confronted with dangers, harrassment and often had to work under conditions of illegality. Nehawu was built on conflict and … when we found the same kind of arrogance at Wits, things that we expected from the National Party government, we began to talk of
These combative traditions have cost the union dearly. There are signs that some of its members, scared off by its militant tactics and managerial retribution, are deserting the union.
Nehawu’s allies in the “tripartite alliance” — Cosatu, the ANC and the Communist Party — are also distancing themselves from disruptive tactics that threaten to alienate support from the wider public.
“Yes we are coming under pressure from the alliance to curb the tactics of our members. Our traditions will take time to stabilise and they will do so in line with the delivery of effective negotiating systems,” he
Two recent developments are likely to galvanise the union’s shift towards “stability” and “normality”. The new labour bill sets in place a compulsory system for conciliation and mediation for the public sector. And Wits this week set up FFACT — the Forum for Further Accellerated Comprehensive Transformation.
“This represents all the components of the university – – including students, workers, administration and the academics.
“It has no executive powers but has to discuss all major issues relating to the governance of the university and affirmative action. There is still lots of room for conflict but it is a major step.”
Yet it is the curious air of loneliness about the Nehawu strongman, the hint of fragility based on a sense that he is about to lose old friends, that is most striking about Nhlapo.
In the end, it will probably take a coherent and active intrusion from Cosatu, the ANC and the Communist Party to calm the waters at Wits.