Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha might be fired on Tuesday, City Press newspaper reported in its online edition on Saturday.
”His expulsion will signal the intensification of a campaign to rid Cosatu of leaders who backed President Thabo Mbeki’s failed bid for a third-term as ANC [African National Congress] leader,” the newspaper said.
Madisha’s fate is likely to be decided at Cosatu’s four-day central executive meeting that is expected to start on Sunday.
He is accused of bringing the federation into disrepute for his alleged involvement in the South African Communist Party’s (SACP) R500 000 saga.
The R500 000 was donated to the SACP by businessman Charles Modise. The money was allegedly transported in Madisha’s car to SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande, who has denied ever receiving the money.
The matter is being investigated by the police and a commission was established to probe the Cosatu president’s role in the saga.
Although the contents of the report are still not known, sources within the trade union told City Press that Madisha’s fate was already ”sealed”.
In November last year, as the commission started its investigation, Madisha said state machinery such as the police was being used against the leaders of the tripartite alliance. ”I will prove that state machinery has been used — affidavits I submitted to the police and those from my witness have been accessed by the media,” he said.
He also said then that never before had it happened in the history of the ANC and the alliance that leaders plotted, lied and planned to kill because of the ANC’s national conference, held in Polokwane in December. ”We see comrades moving around plotting against each other; it has never happened before.”
He said cabals had been set up physically to harm and finish comrades politically. ”People lie that after December there will be no friction within the alliance — that will be the beginning of the problem.”