Johannesburg - Cosatu leader S'dumo Dlamini risks being dismissed as a leader who lacks the courage of his convictions, after holding back from explaining his controversial remarks captured in his keynote address at a May Day rally at the weekend.
His prepared speech distributed to the media contained parts lashing out at political commentators and journalists, who he accused of being part of a plot to destabilise the already fragmented labour federation.
He also went for DA leader Mmusi Maimane and the party’s Joburg mayoral candidate, Herman Mashaba, describing them as “nothing else but sellouts for bosses”.
In the same speech, Dlamini dismissed Mashaba, a self-made entrepreneur, as another “black puppet candidate”.
“They will never in their life time stand up against the labour brokers and the exploitation of workers,” Dlamini’s speech read.
But when he took to the podium at Mamelodi’s Moretele Park in Tshwane on Sunday to address the crowd, the Cosatu president seemed to chicken out from saying the controversial remarks captured in his 2 268-word speech.
When The Star asked him why he did not read out the controversial remarks on the stage for the world to hear, he asked: “Do you have a problem with that?”
“Look, you don’t read word for word. You can’t say everything that’s written in the speech. I had 45 minutes, according to the programme. I only spoke at about 3pm when I should have spoken at 1pm. So, time was of the essence,” he explained.
Dlamini’s written speech took note of “some” commentators and scribes who wanted to gag union leaders from talking openly about the “glaring plot” intended to reverse the Struggle gains.
Both Maimane and Mashaba could not immediately be reached for comment.
Maimane’s spokesman Mabine Seabe said they would not be distracted by the “petty” remarks of the ruling tripartite alliance. He dismissed as “tired rhetoric” remarks that black DA leaders were merely puppets to be used by white party bosses to garner votes for the official opposition.