Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha delivered an impassioned plea to members of the tripartite alliance, urging them to respect the views of each organisation.
Concluding the eighth national congress of the federation in Midrand on Thursday, Madisha, who retained his post, said: ”We need to strengthen our relations, be united and enhance the work we do together as the alliance.”
He said Cosatu, the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress, who form the alliance, have a common national interest and each organisation should raise its views without fear.
”We had problems, but regardless of that, the congress decided we recommit ourselves to this alliance. The alliance is the political centre and it plays a major role in taking us, including the freedom we fought for, forward,” Madisha said, adding that Cosatu was an independent organisation that should freely express its views.
He urged the SACP and the ANC to work together with Cosatu so that the labour movement could realise its objectives.
”We, as Cosatu, know we can’t survive without the alliance and this is the same with the ANC and SACP,” he said.
”We need to stop labelling each other when we disagree on issues. We have to respect each other knowing that we are individuals and independent thinkers but dependent on the alliance as it is our key to development and social upliftment of the masses.”
Madisha said the labour federation’s affiliates had gone weak over the years and needed to be strengthened.
”This could be attributed to job losses, unemployment, retrenchments and simple lack of unity. The lack of unity with affiliates is serious and must be addressed with vigour.”
He called on Cosatu affiliates to carry out all the resolutions and decisions taken at the congress.
”We have to implement these because if we choose to abandon whatever was decided during these four crucial days, we might as well declare this gathering a talk show,” Madisha said.
His words ended four days of lengthy and emotionally charged debates on various issues of governance and service delivery to members of the federation and the general population.
One delegate took exception to what Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of Cosatu, termed ”dancing in confusion”.
Vavi made the statement when delegates were discussing whether a person, whose organisation owed Cosatu money, should be allowed to stand for election into office at Cosatu.
Some people walked out of the conference centre as a result of exhaustion, but Vavi called them back, saying: ”The congress is not outside. It is inside.”
President Thabo Mbeki; Deputy President Jacob Zuma; Kgalema Motlanthe, the ANC general secretary; and SOuth African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni were some of the people who made a brief appearance at the national congress.
Mbeki and Zuma were forthright in their call for unity within the alliance with the former saying the ANC would help ailing Cosatu affiliates to recover from their misfortunes.
Madisha and Vavi are among the five out of six top Cosatu leaders who were re-elected to their posts. Others include Joe Nkosi, the first vice-president, deputy general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali and Alina Rantsolase, the national treasurer of the organisation.
The most contested post was that of second vice-president, which went to Violet Seboni, the first vice-president of the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union.
Seboni was elevated to the post after receiving 859 votes out of 1 702.
Her rival, Joyce Pekane, received a total of 840 votes.
Pekane was the second vice-president of Cosatu for the past three years.
Madisha said the ousting of Pekane should not be seen as a vote of no confidence in her, but the will of the people.
She has served the movement very well, he said. — Sapa