The new general secretary of South Africa’s largest union is a hard-core communist who believes African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma has had a raw deal.
Frans Baleni was elected unopposed at the National Union of Mineworkers congress last week.
An ordinary worker, Baleni was preferred over professional bureaucrat Achie Palane, the former deputy general secretary, who pulled out of the race after the adoption of a resolution that prevented candidates from standing for leadership positions without worker experience.
Some in the union believe the constitution was rejigged to prevent Palane from acquiring the post because he is not a Xhosa. Many NUM members are from the Eastern Cape.
Baleni is said to be close to outgoing general secretary Gwede Mantashe. His election to one of the most influential positions in the largest affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is seen as a boost for the left and its increasingly open oppposition to President Thabo Mbeki.
Under Mantashe’s leadership the union has been a staunch supporter of Zuma and in an interview this week, Baleni sought to justify its stance.
”Our defence for Zuma is on the basis that he is been given a raw deal. The raids by the Scorpions on his houses and the offices of his lawyers, the off -the-record briefing by former national director of public prosecutions [Bulelani Ngcuka] … all this things tells you that something is not right,” he said.
On Zuma’s comments during his rape trial, and his sexual encounter with the HIV-positive complainant, Baleni said: ”Nobody is perfect. It would be unfortunate to judge Zuma on the basis of what he said. You can’t judge a person by one mistake.”
Born in the Free State in 1960, the soft-spoken Baleni joined the NUM in 1982 at the age of 22. He has served in various leadership positions ranging from shop steward to branch chairperson and regional coordinator.
His rise to prominence began in 1993 when he was elected national organiser, a position vacated by Mantashe when he moved to the secretariat.
A South African Communist Party activist, he represented the party at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa negotiations and served on the sub-committee dealing with the release of political prisoners and the levelling of the political playing fields. Until recently, he was a member of the Eskom board.
Baleni sees his immediate task as eradicating tribal factions in the union. ”Tribalism is a cancer. People use it when they want to advance their personal positions. This is pure absence of class consciousness. Our task is to ensure that we eradicate it once and for all.”
Cosatu’s general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, expressed confidence in Baleni’s leadership. ”The union has invested a lot in him. He has been a very committed cadre,” said Vavi.
Interestingly, business has also welcomed his election. Frans Barker, a senior Chamber of Mines executive, praised Baleni’s leadership qualities.
”We have found him to be a strong and decisive leader. We prefer strong leaders, because that is what the industry needs,” said Barker.
AngloGold Ashanti executive Robbie Lazare echoed Barker’s sentiments: ”I have great respect for his integrity, for doing what is best for members and for the industry.”
But one senior Cosatu leader, who did not want to be named, raised doubts about Baleni’s ability to lead such a large union. ”He doesn’t have the charisma and the ability to talk to workers as Mantashe did. He’s a bit aloof. He’s not a natural leader like Mantashe, and this will have an effect on the stature of the NUM.”
Baleni has to step into some large shoes. He will have to live up to past mineworker leaders with giant repu-tations such as JB Marks, Elijah Barayi, Cyril Ramaphosa, Kgalema Motlanthe and Mantashe.
Said Vavi: ”The respect the NUM commands in Cosatu can be attributed, among other things, to the calibre of the leaders it has produced. The new leaders will know that leadership is not an issue of numbers, but by a combination of sophistication, serving its constituency and sticking by its principles.”