Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Tuesday denied that Cosatu had ever apologised to President Jacob Zuma and the ANC for publicly criticising him, saying the apology was only with regard to personalised insults directed at Zuma by union members during the recent public-service strike.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. We apologised to the ANC president [Zuma] for the personalised insults directed at the president and his family carried through placards and songs.
“This was the right thing to do,” said Vavi during his address to hundreds of delegates attending the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ [Nehawu] congress in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Vavi rejected allegations that Cosatu, which came under pressure from a number of senior ANC leaders, apologised to Zuma to clear the air with the ANC ahead of the party’s national general council last week.
“You know comrades, we are not scared to be unpopular, but only when we act in defence of our policies and principles,” said Vavi.
He stressed that the apology to Zuma was not for any criticism he received but rather for the messages in the songs and placards which were not Cosatu’s official position.
Insults
One of the songs, as reported in the Socialist South Africa site, said, “Zuma, we took you [Zuma] to Parliament, all you have done is to get yourself more women — voetsak [go to hell]!”
Vavi was also at pains to explain to delegates why Cosatu leaders decided to suspend the strike, despite the fact that the government had failed to meet labour’s demands.
“In short, it is not the Sadtu president, the Nehawu general secretary or the Cosatu general secretary or anyone else who sold out. The only mistake the leaders committed was to twice propose a settlement area without canvassing this properly with their provincial structures. Secondly the provincial leaders were not in our view properly briefed all the time about the political interventions taking place.” said Vavi.
“Negotiations started in October 2009; after six months, government had only improved its offer from 5,2% to 6,2% and the housing allowance from R500 to R620.” Unions had started off demanding 11% and a R2&nbsb;500 housing allowance; however at this juncture they had dropped their demands to 8,6% and R1Â 000 for housing. In May this year, they reached a deadlock.
“Cosatu leadership was not involved in these negotiations,” Vavi said.
Vavi said he together with Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini intervened to resolve the deadlock only after negotiators could not see eye to eye.
Dlamini arranged to meet with the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Richard Baloyi, on August 4, said Vavi. “The president invited the Cosatu secretary who insisted that the minister of finance [Pravin Gordhan] be part of the meeting, since it is he who holds the government purse.”
Agreement?
Before this meeting, Dlamini told Vavi that the leadership of the union “believed 7% and R750 for housing would be a basis for settlement”. This was the basis on which they engaged the government leaders. Government agreed on this subject to further calculations on their part.
The unions, on hearing the outcome of this meeting, agreed to this “as one of the scenarios for a possible settlement”.
Marches then took place on August 10, and government was expected to table the offer formally that evening; however government was not finished calculating the affordability of the offer. They then presented the revised offer the following day.
At this point, Vavi recommended that the unions accept the offer of 7% and R700. “We had a responsibility to recommend the offer, as it was we who had induced the government to make a move on the basis that this was to settle the dispute and avoid a protracted strike action. It would have been disingenuous and hypocritical for us to turn around and be the ones who rejected the offer first,” he said.
This offer was “roundly rejected” by the unions. The strike proceeded on August 12. On the 12th day of the strike another offer was tabled by the unions to settle the strike at 7,5% and R800 housing subsidy.
“Government agreed to revise its offer and was ready to present it on September 1st,” said Vavi. When he realised the offer could be rejected by the unions, he “opened a parallel discussion with the minister of finance urging him to move further to 8% and R850”.
Like parking a truck
“It was like parking a truck,” said Vavi. His analogy continued to describe a truck driver being directed into a parking bay until it hit a ditch – government was the truck driver and the federation’s leadership the directors of the truck. However government did not fall into the ditch. Negotiations stopped on September 3 and have not resumed since.
“The government was accusing unions of tricking them into believing that the strike would end after they improved the offer from 6,5% to 7% and R630 to R700 and later to 7,5% and R800. Now the unions were saying that is also not good enough and were asking for 8% and R850. Our integrity was in tatters. They were ordered to stop engaging with us, as it was a waste of time.”
At this point unions had to evaluate the situation and judge if their sacrifice of no-work no-pay was still worth it without any negotiations. At the same time the strike was no longer as effective as it had been in the beginning. With these considerations and others, the strike was then suspended.