Babalo Ndenze
Political Bureau
COSATU is under threat from a “Numsa leadership clique” led by the union’s general secretary Irvin Jim, says SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande.
He described the outspoken general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) as nothing but a “lost cause”.
Nzimande launched his attack on Jim at an SACP “red brigade” volunteer programme launch in Philippi yesterday.
The SACP boss, who also denounced the tendency among certain unions to use “dirty money” to divide Cosatu, said Jim was aiding and abetting the cause of the opposition DA.
Nzimande, who is also the minister of higher education, was responding to an earlier attack by Jim who accused him of being the main cause of the souring relations between Numsa, Cosatu and the SACP.
Addressing the Cape Town Press Club last week, Jim said the souring relations between Numsa and the SACP could be traced back to the period after the public sector strike two years ago.
Jim had accused Nzimande of leading a smear and vilification campaign against Numsa leaders, which saw some SACP leaders calling Jim and others names like “populists” and “demagogues”.
Jim had also accused Nzimande and Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini of being behind a plot to orchestrate an internal revolt against the current Numsa leadership.
“It’s not even worth responding to him (Jim), frankly.
“He’s a lost cause and we think that he is actually serving the interests of those who want to divide and weaken the working class. He’s doing very well, just like the DA is trying to do,” said Nzimande.
He called on the red brigades to use the election campaign to unite Cosatu.
“That’s very important, because Cosatu is under threat. You know, when the offensive against the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) started, we said as SACP that this offensive against the NUM is the beginning of the offensive against Cosatu as a whole,” he added to loud applause.
Nzimande was referring to the battle between Numsa and NUM, Cosatu’s two largest affiliates, which has been going on for over two years.
The campaign saw both unions attacking each other in public, after Numsa decided to mobilise support from among NUM supporters.
“We said that and we said we must defend the NUM in order to defend Cosatu. And today we are being proven right. The offensive now (has) gone to the point that there is a risk that Cosatu may split today.”
He described the situation as “unfortunate”.
“Why would a Cosatu affiliate want to split Cosatu? If you split Cosatu, only the imperialists and bosses will benefit, not the working class of South Africa.
“Not all those workers (from Numsa) are going to go into the wilderness,” said Nzimande.
The SACP general secretary reiterated that unnamed “business unionists” used dirty money to divide the labour federation.
“One of the biggest dangers in the trade union movement today is what we call business unionists. The use of the resources in the hands of the union and its investment funds… I get worried. Where is this money coming from? It is dirty money, I have no doubt about it, which is being used to come and divide the federation,” he said.