Johannesburg - Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says he may be forced to quit politics, eNCA reported on Thursday.
He told the news channel that his family had called a meeting to persuade him to leave the trade union federation and the African National Congress.
“Well I hear that they are plotting now that they will convene a family imbizo in December, to plead with me to walk away because they think that it's not worth it,” Vavi said.
“They fear that one day I will arrive back home on my back in a black coffin.”
Vavi said the threats on his life, by means of a planned car-crash or poisoning, had pushed his family to the limit.
However, he was still not sure who wanted to kill him or why.
Vavi said it never occurred to him that he would one day fear for his life in a democratic South Africa.
“What is disappointing to me and I must say... that's a life I was expecting to go through including death at all moments, way back before 1994.
“After 1994 naively I thought that those things are things of the past.” - Sapa