Durban - Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini has described any suggestion that President Zuma should step down from the Union Buildings as a “dead call” .
Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference of the World Federation of Trade Unions in Durban on Tuesday, Dlamini said recalling Zuma could risk another split within the ANC.
“It’s a dead call already because; the ANC and the alliance agreed you can’t do that and risk another split of the ANC. We are not going to do that,” Dlamini said.
Following the August 3 municipal elections, there had been calls from some quarters that Zuma step down.
This, as some believed his scandals were partly to blame for the ANC’s poor performance at the polls, where it lost the Tshwane, Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela metros.
Businessman and former foreign affairs department director-general, Sipho Pityana, was among those vocal on the need for the recall of Zuma.
Some ANC members, known in social media as #OccupyLuthuliHouse, even marched to the party’s headquarters, calling on Zuma and the national executive committee to resign.
However, Dlamini said the ANC could not do a repeat of 2008, when it recalled former president Thabo Mbeki - a move that resulted in the formation of the Congress of the People (Cope).
He said doing so would be tantamount to committing a suicide.
“By all standards there are problems, but they are within a manageable situation,” Dlamini said about the difficult time facing the ANC.
His comments came amid Cosatu reluctance to pronounce on its preferred successor to Zuma, as lobbying is under way in the ANC before the succession debate is officially opened.
The labour federation last week gave a green light to its affiliates to discuss the matter in their structures.
Dlamini said Cosatu would only make its decision on its preferred candidate after the affiliates finalised theirs.
The National Union of Mineworkers, Police Prison and Civil Rights Unions and the South African Democratic Teachers Union have already made it known that they want Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to take over after next year’s congress.
* Meanwhile, Dlamini said Cosatu and its affiliates appreciated the gesture by the WFTU to host its congress in Durban starting today until Friday.
The WFTU’s congress is being held on the continent for the first time.
“It is a big event for Africa because we want to use this opportunity to raise the bar for Africa, and the world to focus on realities about Africa,” he said, adding that “illicit outflows of money from Africa to other countries in America, yet the mineral wealth of Africa is not benefiting almost a billion people in Africa”.
George Mavrikos, the WFTU general secretary, said 1 500 delegates from 111 countries were expected at the congress.
Mavrikos said trade unions needed to pay attention to the rights of workers as one of their priorities.
Daily News