The Congress of South African Trade Unions is out of step with the public in its support for former deputy president Jacob Zuma, report Marianne Merten and Ferial Haffajee.
Public opinion polls suggest South Africa is far more ambivalent about Zuma than his union and business backers, who this week launched a struggle era-styled Jacob Zuma Support Fund. Research Survey’s metropolitan survey this week of 300 adults with access to a landline showed that 54% of people said Cosatu was wrong to fund Zuma’s legal costs.
One in three felt it was the right thing to do, with more Africans and young people in favour.
President Thabo Mbeki’s popularity increased markedly after he axed Zuma. Their June survey found that 74% of those surveyed backed the president’s decision to relieve his deputy of office.
Mbeki’s popularity had dipped to about 58% in the early 1990s, but he won an approval rating from more than eight in 10 of those surveyed last month.
Presciently, those polled also felt the move would divide the African National Congress and Cosatu. A small majority felt Zuma was being made a scapegoat for the arms deal, and believed the procurement required further investigation.Zuma’s approval was last measured at about 62%.
A more extensive Markinor survey in February showed that public satisfaction with Zuma’s performance in government had dropped to 53% from 66% in May 2004.
“It is important not to confuse Cosatu rank-and-file support for Zuma with that of the general public. Organised labour represents a relatively small section of the South African public,” said Bob Mattes, the director of Afrobarometer.
An Afrobarometer survey released in March showed that just 5% of South Africans were active members of trade unions or staff associations.
But unionists are well-rooted in working class communities and probably have more influence than the data suggests, although probably not as much as Cosatu claims.