The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Tuesday threatened to pull out of an alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) if the ruling party persists with disciplinary charges against its leader, Zwelinzima Vavi.
“If the decision is allowed to stand it will create a terrible precedent which would spell the end of the alliance,” Cosatu said in a statement.
The ANC decided on Monday to discipline Vavi for saying the union federation was concerned that senior ANC members were exploiting political connections to get rich.
Cosatu is in a formal alliance with the ANC.
The relationship between the ANC and its labour and communist party alliance partners has soured, threatening to split the decades-old partnership.
Disciplinary action against Vavi comes at a sensitive time for the ANC, just weeks after its youth leader, Julius Malema, was sanctioned for bringing the party into disrepute with a series of inflammatory outbursts.
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.
While the ANC has not yet confirmed how it will proceed with the disciplinary action, Vavi said the charges would not hold.
“These charges are laughable and not going to happen because I was speaking on behalf of the union and not in my individual capacity,” Vavi told Reuters in a phone interview on Tuesday.
COSATU HAS RIGHT TO SLAM CORRUPTION
Vavi said Cosatu, with its two million members, was well within its rights to speak out against corruption in government and the ruling party. “I speak for workers. The ANC can’t say that workers don’t have a right to be critical,” he said. Cosatu has gone head-to-head this year with the ruling party after the labour federation called for the lifestyles of senior politicians and other leaders to be audited.
The ANC’s top leadership tried to play down the incident at a luncheon for political editors on Monday. “I can tell you with my eyes closed that he [Vavi] has not received charges from the ANC,” ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said.
However, Vavi told Reuters that while he was not officially told of the charges, party insiders had confirmed that disciplinary action would be taken against him. Having backed Zuma’s presidential bid, Cosatu is now frustrated by his failure to do more for workers and to shift policy to the left and do more for the poor.
The country’s biggest trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), called on the ANC to clarify its position and said any disciplinary action against Vavi would be seen as an attempt to muzzle workers.
“No amount of threats will stop us from articulating our views … NUM views any attempt to charge Vavi as a declaration of war,” said Frans Baleni, NUM’s secretary general.
The federation has threatened to review its relationship with the ANC if it is not involved in all government decisions.
In rejecting the charges, Vavi said: “This is an example of factionalism in at the ANC at the best.” — Reuters, Sapa