Congress of SA Trade Unions’ general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was ”devastated” by President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to sack Deputy President Jacob Zuma from his duties.
”This is a very, very trying moment for the movement as a whole,” said Vavi.
”I’m devastated and my heart goes out for the deputy president, his family and his colleagues,” he said.
He said Zuma was not ”just another fellow, not just another man,” he was ”Msholozi himself” (Zuma’s clan name) — a man with an unbelievable track record in the struggle against apartheid and the development of the country’s democracy in the past 11 years.
Cosatu understood it was the prerogative of the president to invite members in and out of his executive committee. ”We will have to respect that decision,” said Vavi.
He agreed with Mbeki that everyone should presume Zuma innocent until he was proved guilty.
Cosatu will be calling a special meeting of its central executive committee to discuss the implications of the president’s statement, made before a joint sitting of both houses of Parliament in Cape Town on Tuesday afternoon.
It was a very important decision which would have to be thoroughly discussed, Cosatu said.
It believed the same discussions also had to be held within the ANC, the SA Communist Party and the democratic movement as a whole.
The ANC Youth League refused to comment after the announcement, but said it would hold a press conference on the matter on Wednesday at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters. – Sapa