/ 12 June 2011

Cosatu’s Vavi warns of ‘banana republic’

Cosatu's Vavi Warns Of 'banana Republic'

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi warned that South Africa could become a “banana republic”, and threatened to repudiate President Jacob Zuma’s leadership, the Sunday Times reported.

In a report prepared for the federation’s central committee meeting on June 27, the Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary said relations in the tripartite alliance had been “bad” last September, the newspaper reported.

Vavi was referring to African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe, who shortly before the ANC national general council meeting in Durban, invited the federation to walk away from the alliance.

“The manner of presentation; the anger combined with arrogance, positional postures, insults and rough language appeared designed to provoke a walkout by Cosatu,” Vavi reportedly wrote in the report prepared for the gathering in June.

The report confirmed that Cosatu believed the ANC Youth League was mounting a campaign to remove Mantashe and Zuma, the paper reported.

“If they succeed in this campaign, the ANC as we have known it will be history. Our country we love so much will go straight down the direction of a banana republic. The current challenge of corruption will be institutionalised with a risk that the very country will be sold to the highest bidder,” Vavi reportedly said.

‘Decent discussion’
Although Cosatu was one of the key ANC allies to push for Zuma to replace Thabo Mbeki as ANC president in 2007, the federation has in recent months become one of the fiercest critics of Zuma’s leadership style in both government and the ruling party.

In an interview on Friday with the Mail & Guardian, Vavi said Cosatu was unhappy with the ANC-led government because of its poor performance, particularly with regard to job creation and in combating corruption.

“That’s why we’re so critical of everybody. We want the movement, and the leadership in particular, to pull up their socks,” Vavi said.

“When you look at the past three years, they have made mistakes, they put us on a back foot. But do those mistakes amount to abandoning the project? We want to have a decent discussion about that.” Vavi insisted that he was not referring to Zuma as an individual. – Sapa and Staff reporter