Willie Madisha, president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), survived another round of debate about divisions within the federation during a tense, two-day central executive committee (CEC) meeting recently where ”gloves were off and blood was on the floor”, in the words of general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
With the leadership announcing at the end of the CEC that it is determined to bury the hatchet, Cosatu now plans to tackle the reasons behind the divisions that so seriously threatened the federation’s unity in recent months.
Divisions emerged ahead of the federation’s ninth national congress in September, when the media reported that Madisha was conducting an investigation into Vavi’s alleged misuse of a federation credit card.
Vavi subsequently denounced federation members whom he accused of conducting character assassination by speaking anonymously to the media.
Cosatu established a commission of presidents from the affiliates to investigate the tensions within the organisation. These tensions came to a head during the congress, at which Madisha was narrowly re-elected president after fierce lobbying for and against him.
During the CEC, which ran from November 20 to 22, representatives of the federation’s 21 affiliates, provincial structures and national office assessed the September presidents’ commission report, and a report prepared by the national office bearers on how Cosatu could address the political and organisational challenges facing the federation.
It is believed some union leaders were so unhappy with Madisha that they tried to push for either some form of disciplinary action or a motion of no confidence against him. But the rest of the leadership decided against that, worried that would further tarnish the image of the federation.
The press statement following the CEC says that no national office bearer of Cosatu told Madisha that there had been abuse of the Cosatu credit card. It also denies that there was any investigation into the use of the credit card, arguing that the media leaks were intended to undermine Cosatu and Vavi.
At a press conference this week Vavi said there would be no ”witch-hunt” for any person leaking information to the media.
CEC attendants say that divisions between the affiliates have subsided since the national congress, but that some antagonism was still evident at the beginning of the meeting.
CEC participants reportedly held a frank and open discussion of the issues, with leaders apologising for actions that might have contributed to divisions within the organisation.
Madisha agreed with reports that the CEC had come down hard on Cosatu leadership for actions that threatened to divide the federation.
Cosatu acknowledges in its press statements that there were ”real divisions” during the September Congress and the period leading up to it, but says that media reports exacerbated them.
It attributes these divisions to ”political differences on the role of Cosatu in the transition”.
Vavi explained that these differences were not about different ”camps” but about issues such as whether Cosatu should focus on the workplace or political arena, and how it relates to the alliance and addresses capitalism.
”We’re going to emerge stronger,” said one participant, who maintained that the CEC reflected Cosatu’s ability to resolve differences through debate more effectively than its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and the ANC.
Some of the steps that the federation plans to take will be to draft codes of conduct and hold a political school early next year to structure debate in the organisation.
CEC attendants say the codes of conduct will tighten up financial controls around credit cards and organisational resources, address what qualities are desired in leadership, clarify the roles of the president and general secretary and set guidelines for managing conflicts of interest.
The political school will address issues of leadership qualities and the culture of Cosatu, how the federation responds to divisions in the alliance, how workers’ issues are dealt with in the context of the alliance and whether the organisation should do more to work towards socialism or manage conditions under capitalism.
The resolutions referred to the CEC by the congress were not addressed during the CEC and have been rolled over for consideration at the next CEC, in February.