Johannesburg - The overwhelmingly defeated “progressive” faction Cosatu unions have threatened to take legal action against the federation because its special national congress taking place in Midrand this week has been deliberately undermined.
Although the unions had issues with credentials at the congress on Monday, they were out-voted by a landslide late on Monday.
The unions say the meeting is being hijacked with the intention of replacing unity and cohesion with intolerance and closing down democratic space.
“Those who declared in May 2013 that they wanted to dismantle the federation in order to start it afresh have today the upper hand and have succeeded,” a statement from the unions says.
“This federation is unlikely to ever be the same again. It has been fatally wounded by an agenda that has nothing to do with the interests of workers or the working class.”
The unions said Cosatu was even more polarised than it was before this week’s congress and remained locked in paralysis.
Further, court judgments against the organisation had been deliberately misinterpreted to maintain a fiction that the congress’s agenda not be amended, despite constitutional provisions for this.
“We have also witnessed a shameful disregard of the laws of natural justice. The shocking abuse of power inherent in the release of a supposedly key congress document one working day before the Special National Congress, which repeats all of the unproven accusations against the (expelled Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi) and Numsa, has undoubtedly rendered unfair any appeal process now and in the future,” they said.
“Basically we have seen Cosatu abusing the rights of not only (Vavi), but also one who has a contractual relationship with the federation. Contradicting all the basic norms of fairness at work that trade unions seek to establish, Cosatu has denied its own employee the right to a fair disciplinary process, and has chosen instead to use the so-called unity and cohesion discussion document to conduct a kangaroo court in his absence.”
The unions said there would now be an unavoidable and “desirable” split in the federation, which had apparently been predicted by former-Nehawu general secretary, Fikile Majola, two years ago.
“(Majola) told the CEC held 27 – 29 May 2013 that a faction had made a calculation that a split of the federation is unavoidable and that the Cosatu General Secretary and Numsa, must be ‘surgically removed from the Federation’,” they said.
“This stunned many of us who believe that workers unity is sacrosanct.”
Since Majola’s statement was made, the leadership faction within the central executive committee (CEC) has followed this approach with “military precision”.
“Despite external interventions to help resolve the crisis in Cosatu, including that led by Petrus Mashishi and Charles Nupen, but also the ANC Task Team, nothing was allowed to succeed and reports and recommendations were simply ignored,” the unions said.
“Regrettably the ANC has now taken sides, and has tacitly accepted the dismissal of 365 000 members, and justified their partisan approach by saying that Cosatu must manage its own affairs.”
They said delegate caucuses prior to the congress had pointed to a “worrying slide towards a form of authoritarianism that contradicts democratic worker control” combined with the failure to address chronic corruption, the illegal and unconstitutional purges of those attempting to establish accountability, and the sheer gangsterism.
“The crisis engulfing the working class is not on the agenda of this Congress, and has in fact been effectively sidelined. Unemployment has reached catastrophic levels of 36,1 percent, including youth unemployment standing at a staggering 60 percent. “Poverty now afflicts 54 percent of the population with 14 million of our people going to bed every night without food. Low pay and increasing wage income differentials have become a norm. None of these issues has been prioritised by the Congress and have been barely referred to.
“What Cosatu has correctly labelled human traffickers, meaning labour brokers, is also missing from the agenda. The dysfunctional and two tiered education and health systems have not even been discussed. There are countless other worker priorities including the spread of a cancerous corruption that has spread right into so many of our institutions, and in many Cosatu unions.”
The unions now plan to hold a “broader, more representative workers’ summit” to discuss the future of trade unionism.
“We will convene special national executive committee meetings of our unions as soon as possible after this failed congress. We shall not participate in the CEC while the intransigence of the current leadership prevails,” they said.
“We urge all trade unionists, regardless of the union or federation they belong to, to be part of a genuine democratic revival, and to join with us in rebuilding a militant, independent, worker controlled trade union movement that will meet the needs of the working class. Nothing less will do.”
Labour Bureau