South Africa was “in trouble” on many levels, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi warned on Wednesday.
“There can be no denial that we are fighting ourselves at the moment… and there is an attempt by the powerful elite to shut up everybody: including shutting them up permanently.
“Comrades are beefing up security, including me. It’s not the AWB [Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging] and it’s not all the right-wing white extremists. It’s one another.”
He said some senior government officials were too preoccupied with power games to care about the poor and unemployed.
“We are in trouble politically … in 2014 we [will not be able to] offer answers when our people ask what have we done [to eradicate unemployment and poverty],” the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions boss told a National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa job summit in Johannesburg.
Many people were living in fear of their reputations being destroyed, their political standing being jeopardised, and in fear for their own safety.
Vavi said many of those who had fought to bring change at the ANC’s elective conference in Polokwane in 2007, which saw President Jacob Zuma elected party leader, no longer saw eye to eye.
Referring to Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s medium-term budget policy statement on Tuesday, Vavi said it was no surprise the country was facing tough times.
He warned that frustration among the poor was growing, especially in informal settlements.
“Where is the leadership?” asked Vavi. — Sapa