Johannesburg - Cosatu’s biggest affiliate, the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has described as divisive utterances by ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe that Cosatu risked being a “yellow union”.
Mantashe said in his address to the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) congress on Wednesday that the federation’s dominance by public sector unions would turn Cosatu into a yellow federation, which meant it would lean closer to the state as public servants were known to be “masters of the time”. “Once you have a federation that is dominated by the public sector, then you are in trouble,” he said urging the federation to focus on recruiting more industrial workers.
Nehawu did not take kindly to the comments. “The problem with this statement is that it reduces public sector unions to unreliable and ahistorical organizations and set the workers against each other,” said Nehawu spokesman, Sizwe Pamla in a statement.
The union accused Mantashe of having fallen of belonging to the school of thought of those who perpetuated a myth that workers’ employment sector determines their levels of consciousness. “In fact, it’s the role of Cosatu to dominate all sectors of the economy including the public sector. Cosatu public sector unions have more than 50% membership already in the sector and this should be encouraged,” Pamla said.
Labour Bureau