Incumbent Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha was re-elected by 42 votes on Thursday, the Electoral Institute of South Africa (Eisa) announced.
Madisha polled 1 194 votes to his challenger Zanoxolo Wayile’s tally of 1 152.
There were just five spoilt ballots.
A total of 2 351 votes were cast of the 2 432 voting delegates who registered for the conference.
The congress delegates erupted in screams of joy as Eisa’s Thobile Thomas announced the result.
Initially, there was confusion, as unionists could not work out who the winner was, as Thomas announced the total number of votes for each candidate rather than the name of the new president.
Wayile was immediately lifted onto the shoulders of his lieutenants, one of whom was wearing a camouflage vest and a Palestinian-patterned red scarf around his nose and mouth.
His puzzled then disappointed supporters then listened to Thomas’s second announcement and clarification, resulting in huge cheers for Madisha.
Many broke the anti-vuvuzela rules that general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi had called for during the conference, saying they were the culture of the FNB stadium.
All other secretariat positions were unopposed.
“Observers have said to me they are satisfied with the manner in which the voting and counting was carried out,” said Thomas.
Cosatu sticks with alliance
The resolution to keep intact the tripartite alliance — led by the African National Congress (ANC) — was earlier passed by the Cosatu, but not without questions being raised from the floor about whether working-class interests were being fostered.
The most strident view about the coalition was expressed by the Anti-War Coalition’s Altheo Macqene — a guest rather than a delegate to the Cosatu congress — who said that the ANC had become “a bourgeois” political party. The comment was greeted with applause.
She argued that continuation in an alliance would undermine the federation’s — Cosatu’s — commitment to socialism and “the class struggle”.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said he expected a central committee meeting in September to thrash out the matter of the alliance — emphasising that the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Cosatu needed to explore further ways of fostering the interests of the working class within the alliance.
Vavi said there appeared to been a welcome recent shift to a more expansionary fiscal and monetary stance, but noted that this too not been canvassed in the alliance.
ANC representative and Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi, however, came under congress flak when he suggested that there were “fantastical” analyses of the current world — apparently referring to certain trade unionists.
He said the ANC government’s programme — apparently a reference to its economic programme — was “unfolding in conditions which are not of your choosing” — pointing out that the adoption of a socialist programme, first adopted at an ANC congress in exile in 1969, had taken place in different conditions.
Now there was no Soviet Union, he pointed out.
Mufamadi — who is also a member of the SACP — said: “We are executing the struggle where threats have become bigger.”
But he said these threats, which he did not define, existed side by side “with opportunities”.