War of words: round 592

The latest spat between President Thabo Mbeki and Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi followed a meeting earlier this year in which Mbeki allegedly accused the labour federation leadership of behaving like ‘thugs and counter-revolutionaries”, according to Sdumo Dlamini, Cosatu’s vice-president.

This ongoing war of words between Vavi and Mbeki is being interpreted by tripartite alliance leaders as symptomatic of a class war in alliance structures ahead of the ruling party’s policy conference next month.

It is widely believed that these differences over the ideological character of the ANC, while not new, will be critical determinants in the outcome of the ruling party’s elective congress in December.

The policies, specifically economic, agreed to at the ANC’s policy conference at the end of June are likely to be reflective of the type of candidate delegates would vote into power in December.

Cosatu insists that the ANC’s economic policies are exclusionary and that only a presidential candidate like ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, who, they say, has working class interests at heart, would shift them leftwards.

The ANC’s argument, championed by Mbeki, is that its economic policies are among the most expansionary in the world and strike the necessary fiscal balance between economic growth and poverty alleviation in the long term. The next president should protect the current status quo, they say.

Mbeki is said to have attacked Cosatu’s leadership at an ANC national executive committee lekgotla in February, which a delegation of 20 Cosatu leaders attended.

‘We were dealt a serious blow because the meeting had been intended to discuss particular policies,” said Dlamini. Mbeki’s attack was apparently a response to certain economic resolutions Cosatu had taken at its recent national congress.

Mbeki apparently apologised at a subsequent bilateral meeting between the ANC and Cosatu and it was agreed that tripartite alliance leaders would refrain from personalised attacks, particularly if they were based on unconfirmed media reports.

Now Cosatu has lambasted Mbeki for ‘reneging” on this agreement in his latest public exchange with Vavi.

Smuts Ngonyama said Dlamini’s claims were ‘a complete fabrication and nonsense. False claims such as these are clearly meant to sow division within the alliance.”

In his online letter last Friday, Mbeki wrote: ‘More often than not, we have declined to comment on various negative statements that Vavi has made over the years about both our movement and government. However, it is not possible to ignore the grossly repugnant statement he made.”

His criticism followed Vavi’s comments at Numsa’s 20th anniversary cele­brations two weeks ago that ‘reports of an economic boom in South Africa were government propaganda similar to that of Hitler’s Nazi Germany”.

It is not clear what the root of the historically acrimonious relationship between Mbeki and Vavi is, but the latest blow-up was indicative of both leaders ‘attempting to stamp their authority on the policy debates”, said an ANC provincial secretary.

This weekend the North West, Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga ANC structures will hold provincial general council meetings to consolidate the outcome of branch general council meetings on the ANC policy documents.

In its response to the ANC’s policy discussion documents, Cosatu accuses the ANC of marginalising its traditional working class in favour of a ‘small black bourgeoisie”.

‘While the historic constituency of the ANC remains the black working class, the national leadership is increasingly becoming capitalist and middle-strata in composition and character — the working-class character of the revolution is under constant challenge, with intense debate over economic policy in particular.”

Vavi recently said Cosatu would ‘recapture” the ANC and ‘flood” it with the working class. ‘Our members cannot stay outside and choose to complain about the ANC. There is massive anger exploding — our members have given us the most militant directive to date in the history of Cosatu,” he said.

Mbeki shot back in his online letter: ‘Vavi seeks to discredit the ANC … our political platform and transformation programme, and mobilise the entirety of the population, as well as the global democratic movement, to join in a concerted struggle to defeat the ANC and government.”

Long history of blow-ups

• November 2004: Mbeki describes as ‘astounding” Vavi’s intention to conduct a Cosatu fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe.
• September 2005: Vavi accuses Mbeki of ‘a failure of leadership” on HIV/Aids. Mbeki responds: ‘At best, Vavi’s remarks demonstrate a high level of ignorance on [his] part.”
• May 2006: Vavi likens Mbeki to a dictator: ‘Dictatorship never announces its arrival. It won’t, like drum majorettes, beat drums and parade down the streets to announce it has arrived.”
• February 2007: Mbeki apparently tells Cosatu’s leadership that they are ‘thugs and counter-revolutionaries”.
• May 2007: Vavi says: ‘Reports of an economic boom in South Africa were government propaganda similar to that of Hitler’s Nazi Germany.” Mbeki describes the comments as ‘repugnant”.