“I am back on my feet, I have a mandate to fulfil,” a defiant Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi declared yesterday, signalling his resolve to weather the sex scandal that has enveloped him.
Amid continued signs that his enemies in the federation will try to use the debacle to finish the battle, Vavi said he had “news” for those who thought he would be silenced.
“I am here to beef up the numbers of the soldiers for clean government, and against mediocrity, wastage and ineptness,” he said, resuming his assault on poor government performance that landed him in trouble in the first place.
Speaking to a meeting of teachers’ union Sadtu in Port Elizabeth, Vavi railed against the National Development Plan and the “dysfunctional education system”, according to the text of his prepared speech.
But he said he had come “to apologise to each one of you, and through you, to all Cosatu members and every South African, for letting them down”.
“I don’t blame anyone but myself for the mistake,” he said, pledging not to repeat it.
Vavi’s enemies in Cosatu are believed to be pushing for charges to brought against him for bringing the organisation into disrepute, after he admitted he had sex with a Cosatu employee in her office.
She claimed he had raped her and lodged an internal complaint, but withdrew it at a hearing on Monday.
However, the anti-Vavi faction, aligned to Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini, wants an explanation for the woman’s claim that Vavi hired her without following proper procedures.
The Cosatu general secretary is also facing an investigation into allegations of financial impropriety related to the sale of the old Cosatu House, and has been accused of dancing to his own tune in his strident criticism of corruption in the government, and the performance of the Jacob Zuma administration.
Cosatu is an alliance partner of the ruling ANC.
National Health and Allied Workers Union general secretary Fikile Majola said yesterday the national office-bearers were waiting for the report of the independent person who chaired the hearing on Monday before taking a decision on the way forward.
“I know that we’re supposed to have met already,” he said, but he had not yet heard from Cosatu on whether the report had been finalised.
In the meantime, it was “inappropriate” to comment on possible further charges.
Majola has previously spoken of a “strategic political rupture” between the policy of Cosatu and the views of Vavi.
Majola and Dlamini are members of the SACP’s central committee and the ANC’s national executive committee.
Cosatu acting spokesman Vusumuzi Bhengu said on Friday he couldn’t comment on “the process that is currently unfolding internally in Cosatu”.
Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) general secretary Katisha Masemola said his union “suspects” there would be an attempt to bring further charges against Vavi, but that he had no confirmation.
In any case, he said, the national office-bearers did not have the authority to bring charges.
“All they can do is report to the central executive committee (CEC) with a further recommendation or whatever proposal they have, and that will be dealt with in the CEC (the highest decision-making body between congresses).”
A decision was still “far away” as the next scheduled meeting of the CEC was for the middle of next month.
Fawu and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), who have rallied behind Vavi, are calling for a special congress to be convened to deal with the rift in the federation.
Masemola said several other affiliates were considering whether or not to support this call, but he couldn’t name them at this stage.
Numsa Western Cape regional secretary Vuyo Lufele said “speculation” about charging Vavi was “political”.
Many figures “at senior level in the movement” had inappropriate sexual relations, but they had never been accused of bringing it into disrepute.
Those plotting against Vavi were having “sleepless nights in trying to remove him, we know that. I’m not going to mention the individuals, but I think you will see where the compass is pointing”, Lufele said.
It was noticeable that Vavi had been “quiet” lately, but Numsa wanted him to “implement the decisions of the national congress”.
“We need an independent federation, not a lapdog of any political party. We are in alliance and we respect that, but we are an independent trade union movement which has its own objectives,” Lufele said. - Saturday Argus