Cosatu’s metal workers union has been accused of conniving with the rival Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and planning activities that run parallel with those of the trade union federation.
This startling accusation is made in documents Cosatu has prepared for its all-important central executive committee meeting starting tomorrow.
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA is the leading union campaigning for the reinstatement of embattled Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi through a special congress after peace talks failed.
Minutes of a meeting Cosatu held in Rustenburg, North West, last month show that some affiliates also raised concerns about Numsa’s plan to poach members of its sister union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
“The meeting also listened to various allegations that were levelled against Numsa. That included how Numsa worked to weaken NUM when it made joint presentations with the (Amcu) in some negotiations… (and) how Numsa was counter-organising against NUM even holding joint meetings with Amcu and poaching NUM members,” the document states.
“The meeting was concerned about these allegations, which essentially meant that Numsa was consciously working to weaken the NUM and was acting against all the founding principles of Cosatu, which included trade union solidarity expressed in Cosatu’s war cry “an injury to one is an injury to all”, the document added.
Numsa is expected to defend itself against the allegations on Monday.
Some of Numsa and Vavi’s detractors are already pushing for Numsa to be expelled from the federation.
“Another high possibility is that Numsa will be expelled. We will first condemn their behaviour. They have been encouraging their members to boo S’dumo (Dlamini, Cosatu president). It can’t be allowed. They are calling a special national congress to decide whether to support the ANC or not,” a Cosatu leader said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to talk on the matter.
“There is already a Cosatu decision to support the ANC. They are in violation of the Cosatu constitution. They have always wanted to go,” he added.
Numsa spokesman Castro Ngobese could not be reached for comment.
Tomorrow’s meeting comes after weeks of failure to end the fight between Vavi and Dlamini.
Dlamini is expected to report on whether Cosatu is in a position to hold a special congress.
His supporters are already pleading poverty. Nine Cosatu affiliates have called for a special congress, at which Dlamini, Cosatu’s second deputy president Zingiswa Losi, among others, could be removed.
A peace process facilitated by labour lawyer Charles Nupen and former municipal union leader Petrus Mashishi is said to have collapsed.
The Sunday Independent has already reported that the report into the corruption investigation of Vavi will be postponed after the death of a top official at SizweNtsalubaGobodo.
Vavi this week told members of the 1926 Club in Johannesburg that he still believed that his suspension was not justified. “I am challenging the legality of the decision taken on two grounds. First, that I was not offered an opportunity to state why I should not be suspended, in line with the prescription of the law of fairness, and second, that the decision was not taken in line with the Cosatu constitution,” he said.
“I am a revolutionary but I am not perfect and no one is. Revolutionaries are defined by the agency they exercise to change material conditions and their will to fight injustice,” he added.
The Central Executive Committee will get a report on Vavi and Cosatu’s court actions on his suspension. - Sunday independent