Congress of South Africa Trade Union (Cosatu) leaders have demanded that the federation ditch its support for Jacob Zuma as their preferred candidate for the ANC presidency, the Sunday Times reported.
Zuma’s candidacy came under debate at a heated Cosatu central executive committee meeting held at the federation’s Johannesburg headquarters from February 26 to 28.
Cosatu leaders who attended the meeting said that most of the executive members had expressed their reservation about backing a corrupt trialist.
”Imagine a situation where we will have an ANC president who will spend most of his time attending courts hearing,” said a Cosatu official this week.
Cosatu leaders said the move arose out of ”serious consideration” that Zuma might be facing corruption charges by December when the ANC’s national conference takes place in Polokwane, Limpopo.
Cosatu’s general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, was told that ”the workers” never took a formal resolution to support Zuma for the ANC presidency, but rather gave him support in the face of perceived abuse of power by the state.
In recent months, the National Prosecuting Authority made clear its intention to press ahead with corruption charges against Zuma — applying to courts for access to documents that could implicate Zuma in corruption.
According to senior Cosatu officials, Vavi told the executive that he had never said that Zuma should become the next president, the newspaper said.
Vavi also told the newspaper during an interview last week that Cosatu had not taken a decision on whom to back for the ANC presidency.
Union insiders said this about-turn by Vavi — who said two years ago that a Zuma presidency was ”an unstoppable tsunami” — was as a result of the central executive committee meeting.
This was a big blow for Zuma’s presidential ambition because Vavi and other Cosatu leaders have been at the forefront of advocating his candidacy alongside the ANC Youth League and the South African Communist Party, the newspaper said.
According to Cosatu leaders, Vavi had suggested to the committee that the federation should consider having an alternative candidate.
There was growing pressure on Cosatu to officially back ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe.
Cosatu’s Kwazulu-Natal secretary, Zet Luzipho, said the federation had not decided on whom to support.
The central committee is a broader body than the central executive committee and includes lower-ranking leaders.
The contents of the meeting were a closely guarded secret, the newspaper said. – Sapa