“I wish I knew how it would feel to be free. I wish I could break all the chains holding me. I wish I could say all the things that I should say.”
The Lighthouse Family song, a remix of a United States civil rights protest ditty, played during former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s video presentation at Congress of South African Trade Unions’s central committee (CC) meeting this week, was intended to express African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma’s predicament as he faces a corruption trial.
Zuma’s presentation was assisted by Ranjeni Munusamy. She is the former journalist who lost her job trying to protect him.
But the song could also accurately apply to Cosatu’s leaders, who found themselves chained by their members who waged a high-stakes campaign in support of Zuma this week.
Senior Cosatu leaders conceded privately that they could not justify a resolution passed by their affiliates calling for President Thabo Mbeki to intervene in the legal process and withdraw charges against Zuma.
The other CC resolution calls on Mbeki to reinstate Zuma as South Africa’s deputy president, a decision that would presumably involve firing the incumbent, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The resolutions were aimed at putting the ball back in Mbeki’s court following his appeal to Cosatu to help the ANC win the upcoming local government elections. The hardliners in Cosatu argue that the matter is a political one that cannot be handled in a legal and technical manner. The hardliners are led by general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, and the South African Democratic Teachers Union’s general secretary Thulas Nxesi, among others.
The appeal was cold-shouldered by government, suggesting that Mbeki is unlikely to accede to Cosatu’s long-standing call for a “political solution” — code for the federation’s wish that charges against Zuma be quashed in order to pave the way for his political succession.
A senior Cosatu official, who spoke to the Mail & Guardian on condition of anonymity, said pandemonium had broken out among the leadership after the tabling of the resolution, with different union leaders blaming each other for its content and tone.
Although Zuma is seen by union and communist leaders who sponsored the resolution as the only candidate for the next presidency, the official said there was no clear evidence that he had a pro-worker agenda. His left credentials were put under a microscope at the CC proceedings.
“People seem to have forgotten that Zuma vigorously supported the government’s growth, employment and redistribution strategy when we were against the policy in 1997. He said nothing when we were labelled ultra-leftists by government officials.”
The CC is said to have been the arena of intense debate, with some Cosatu affiliates openly questioning when Zuma had suddenly become the workers’ friend. Some are said to have questioned whether he had any history of defending workers, and pointed out that when Cosatu came under ANC attack during the anti-privatisation strike, he had remained silent.
While the anti-Zuma campaigners put up a feisty debate, the overwhelming sentiment among the CC’s 470 delegates was that Zuma was a victim of a political witchhunt and he had to be defended against the dictatorial and technocratic governing style Mbeki personified.
Pro-Zuma delegates cited the example of former National Union of Metalworkers leader Enoch Godongwana, who was axed as an Eastern Cape provincial minister, as proof of this. Defending Zuma, some delegates argued that capitalism itself was a corrupt system, which was bound to produce corrupt results.
Led by the National Union of Mineworkers and Sadtu, the pro-Zuma faction challenged the Cosatu leaders’ position that Zuma should be “granted his day in court”.
As Cosatu accepted that the judiciary was untransformed, they argued that Zuma should not be subjected to that system.
Nxesi said it was clear that the court would merely be a formality for a predetermined political outcome. “We must not dig our heads in the sand as if nothing is happening. There are divisions in our movement.”
It is understood that a union on the other side of the fiery debate, the South African Municipal Workers Union, argued that Cosatu should first consult the ANC before going public with its resolution. The move to hold fire was undermined when the resolution was leaked to the media.
Cosatu spokesperson Paul Notyawa said the federation was discussing how to present its demands to the president.
Cosatu is fronting the Friends of JZ trust, along with the Young Communist League and trustees who include businessman Don Mkhwanazi and Fikile Majola, general secretary of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union.
About a hundred messages, containing pledges of R5 each, had been received in the first 24 hours of the campaign on Tuesday this week.