The African National Congress (ANC) would not be drawn on Tuesday on whether it had discussed charging Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi over comments he made on Cabinet ministers.
“Surely do you expect us to come out of the bedroom and say what we had to say,” ANC chairperson Baleka Mbete told reporters in Johannesburg. “It’s not fair.”
She was asked about a reported discussion on the subject at an ANC national working committee (NWC) meeting.
Mbete said it was not correct for the media to “harass” the ANC to pronounce on things it was not ready to discuss.
Adding to this, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said: “We are not going to debate something that is in the NWC … once a decision is taken by the NWC we call press briefings.”
He said the party generally reported once decisions were made, and not while discussions were still under way.
They were speaking at a “media interaction programme” in Rivonia.
Deputy secretary general Thandi Modise ended with discussion with: “The ANC does not wish to comment on the matter of Vavi.”
Earlier, Cosatu said it would stand by Vavi if the ANC brought disciplinary charges against him.
“We can’t confirm it, we only know what we have read in this morning’s Star,” said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.
He said the union federation was shocked by the report, adding there was no basis for the complaint that Vavi publicly accused ANC ministers of corruption.
The report, which did not name sources, said a discussion took place on Monday at an NWC meeting.
Diverting attention
One of the sources said that the move to charge Vavi was part of the ANC Youth League’s ploy to divert attention from its president, Julius Malema’s, disciplinary charges.
Some of Malema’s supporters were reportedly hoping to force the NWC to overturn his two-year suspended sentence.
Last Thursday, Vavi accused President Jacob Zuma of not taking action against corrupt ministers, specifically mentioning Minister of Cooperative Governance Sicelo Shiceka and Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda.
Vavi said reports that Shiceka had lied in his CV and the conduct of Nyanda, who spent R500 000 on hotels in Cape Town, should be probed.
Vavi is an ordinary member of the ANC.
Before the corruption charges were dropped against Zuma, the president of the ANC, Vavi was one of his most vociferous supporters.
Craven said Cosatu had not been informed, either verbally or in writing, of the possibility of charges against Vavi.
But he said that when Vavi speaks he speaks for the entire federation, and so there is “no way he can be charged as an individual for what the whole organisation has said”.
“Cosatu is an independent organisation in alignment with the ANC and has every right to express its views.” — Sapa