Some blame labour protections and unions for South Africa’s economic malaise. But this claim lacks evidence and stands to leave us in an even worse position. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy, M&G
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), which has been marred by leadership infighting all year, will lobby other police organisations to compensate for the withdrawal of the 82 000-member strong South African Police Union (Sapu).
Sapu, the second largest police union and one of Saftu’s founding members, took the decision to “divorce” Saftu at Sapu’s recent national congress, which ended on Friday, 2 December.
Sapu was also the biggest public service union in Saftu, and its second largest after the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), which has more than 300 000 members.
Saftu has been embroiled in public leadership skirmishes between its secretary general, Zwelinzima Vavi, and Numsa secretary general Irvin Jim, both of whom were once close allies during their time in labour federation Cosatu.
The constant fighting came to a head in May when Vavi was narrowly re-elected with an 89-vote winning margin at Saftu’s national congress, defeating Moses Mautsoe, who was the candidate backed by Numsa and Jim.
Sapu serves divorce papers
Confirming its withdrawal, Sapu secretary general Tumelo Mogodiseng said the “hard decision” was taken after its delegates realised that workers’ issues would not be well represented if it continued to be affiliated to Saftu.
“This important decision that we have taken also means we are withdrawing the deployment of our newly elected president, Thabo Matsose, as the first deputy president of Saftu. This was not an easy decision which we took lightly,” Mogodiseng said.
Matsose was elected Saftu’s first deputy president at the federation’s national congress in May, which was marred with factional fights after Numsa’s then deputy president, Ruth Ntlokotse, was elected Saftu president in defiance of her union’s directive to contest.
Numsa had wanted Mac Chavalala to be re-elected.
Mogodiseng added that Sapu was proud of being one of Saftu’s founding affiliates, but that the police union was aware that its “dream of a new independent, militant and campaigning federation could not be realised”.
“Our revolutionary morale does not allow us to talk ill of Saftu except to say that our continued association with this federation would not assist our members’ struggle for better working conditions,” Mogodiseng asserted.
He said that in the union’s almost 30-year existence, having been formed in 1993, Sapu had tried to stay out of party politics, but that this had proved difficult to do with its continued affiliation to Saftu.
Mogodiseng was alluding to Jim forming the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, which contested the 2019 general elections. It received only 24 439 votes, equating to 0.14% as a share of the national vote.
“We are not looking for any home in any of the existing federations, but we will work together with any union that puts workers first. We are just divorcing Saftu as a federation because of our principles that we hold, nothing more, and we are not divorcing unity within the working class,” Mogodiseng stressed.
Saftu lobbies other unions
Saftu spokesperson Trevor Shaku said on Monday that the federation was not forewarned about Sapu’s plans to leave, saying it came as “a shock” to the trade union organisation because the reasons for the withdrawal were “never raised internally”.
“In fact, they did not even invite the federation to attend and address their congress, despite the leadership of the federation engaging them,” Shaku said.
He confirmed that Sapu’s newly-elected president Matsose would automatically be removed from Saftu’s top leadership structure after the police union’s disaffiliation.
“Saftu will invite Sapu for discussions, but I can say with certainty that even such engagement will not succeed in immediately [bringing] Sapu back into Saftu.
“Their decision to leave Saftu was taken in a congress, and any decision to rejoin the federation will be decided in another congress which will be after four years, or at their central committee meetings,” Shaku explained.
Central committee meetings are union gatherings held at the midpoint between national elective conferences to review progress in policy implementations, or to amend an organisation’s programme.
“In the event that Sapu indicates that it is not willing to engage Saftu, the federation must prepare to lobby other police unions to join the federation or request one of its unions to expand scope into traffic, correctional service and police,” Shaku said.
He rejected claims that Sapu’s disaffiliation would spell the end of Saftu as a viable alternative to Cosatu, emphasising that “a question of viability is not only quantitative, but qualitative”.
“Though we might have lost 82 000 members through this disaffiliation, our qualitative capacity has not diminished an inch. Members of the police are generally limited from participating in protest campaigns, and their departure would not affect our ability to campaign and strike for social, economic and political issues,” Shaku said.
“Our public stature and political integrity has been carved in our anti-austerity and anti-corruption principles and actual campaigns, and will definitely attract trade unions that have the same objective and appetite to fight to request membership.
“Our independence from employers and from the ruling party gives us an advantage for those unions that are not willing to be captured by class collaborationist politics of the tripartite alliance will definitely come to Saftu.”
Saftu was formed in 2017 as an alternative federation to the ANC-aligned Cosatu, after it removed its then secretary general, Vavi, in March 2015, and the expulsion of Numsa four months prior.
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