‘Spitting in the face of the poor’

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu

Published Oct 28, 2010

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Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has railed against lavish parties such as the recent R700 000 bash held by business tycoon Kenny Kunene as examples of “corrupting morality” infecting political high-flyers and public servants who attended them.

“It is this spitting in the face of the poor and insulting their integrity that makes me sick,” he told about 300 delegates at a Cosatu-organised joint labour and civil society conference in Boksburg yesterday.

“It is the sight of these parties where the elite display their wealth – often secured in questionable methods – that turns my stomach.”

Vavi said the same elites wouldn’t do door-to-door election campaigning for the ANC next year, but afterwards would “host victory parties to scavenge on the carcass of our people like the typical hyenas that they are”.

Vavi did not mention Kunene by name, but referred to his weekend 40th birthday bash, where sushi was served “from bodies of half-naked ladies” and where ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and presidential spokesman Zizi Kodwa were among the guests.

“It is greed that is inspired by the conspicuous consumption of the new elite, the (black economic empowerment) types who blow up to R700 000 on one night on parties that makes the public representatives not want to live within the means provided by their salaries and rather by hefty perks.”

When public representatives attended such parties and saw the fancy cars, “our leadership when they come back, they say ‘we are losing out on opportunities’, especially when they see the ages of those hosting the parties”.

Vavi said South African society was “very sick”, because it allowed “these massive inequalities and apartheid to continue in the economy”, while “sitting indifferent when the new elite is on the rampage, humiliating the very motive force of our liberation struggle”.

He hit out at the black empowerment bosses of mining company Aurora, which include President Jacob Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma.

He said young people in their 20s and 30s were becoming millionaires overnight, sending the message to students that they didn’t need to work hard, but only needed to be politically connected to succeed.

The message to “genuine enterpreneurs” was that they only needed to grease a few palms to do business.

“We are rewarding laziness, greed and corruption and discouraging hard work, honesty and integrity,” Vavi thundered.

He said the divisions in political parties such as Cope and the IFP, as well as in-fighting in the ANC at provincial level, showed that people were increasingly unprincipled.

“Genuineness is fast becoming a rare commodity,” he said.

Vavi said Cosatu was angry: “Today we are here to say we want our freedom back from the elite and all these rogue elements of society. “Their party must come to an end.”

He was careful, however, to stress that the conference did not herald the launch a new political party.

Undeterred by criticism from Malema over his slamming of leaders from alliance partners, Vavi again lashed out at the “predatory elite”.

This was “the new coalition of tenderpreneurs” who were “paranoid” about Cosatu’s motives for holding the conference, he said.

They were convincing themselves “that any gathering of independent civil society to confront our challenges is a threat to them”.

Significantly, neither the ANC nor the SACP was invited to the conference, but Vavi said that Cosatu and civil society would work with both parties to help drive government programmes.

One delegate wondered why left-leaning people had not convened before to form a new political party, while Mark Heywood, director of health and human rights NGO, Section 27, said the conference should not be a “talk shop” but a “war shop”. Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini said people should be prepared to “die if need be” in the fight against corruption. - Political Bureau

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