Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma has appealed for unity and discipline among the warring factions within the ANC-led tripartite alliance, saying this was the best way to emulate the late SACP stalwart Moses Kotane.
Zuma, who was speaking at the reburial of the mortal remains of Kotane at his home village of Pella in North West, suggested the nature and character of Cosatu was sacrosanct and that nobody could change it into something else.
Such divisive tendencies were incompatible with the leadership style of Kotane, ”a rare breed of leader who understood the dynamic relationship” between Cosatu, the SACP and the ANC.
“While the leader of the SACP, he (Kotane) exercised his duties as a leader of the (ANC) NEC with discipline,” Zuma said, addressing thousands who packed a giant marquee erected at the Pella village sports ground.
Cosatu is currently going through its worst crisis, fractured by differences between factions aligned to Zuma and those opposed to his administration’s “neo-liberal policies”, notably the National Development Plan and the National Youth Wage subsidy.
Seven of Cosatu’s affiliate unions recently boycotted the labour federation’s crucial central executive meeting in protest against the expulsion of metalworkers’ union, Numsa.
Simultaneously, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who is widely seen as belonging to the anti-Zuma faction within Cosatu, also boycotted the meeting.
Without mentioning Vavi and Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim, Zuma took a swipe at his detractors. “If you are a unionist (and) you become too much of a politician, you don’t have time to deal with factory-floor issues.
“There is no way we will expect comrades to change the federation into something else because it’s not about individuals.”
Zuma called on ANC members and comrades in the alliance to use the return of Kotane and JB Marks’ remains to reflect on whether their political disposition was compatible with Kotane’s selfless and “workings of Marxism-Leninism that distinguished him from his peers”.
“They were prepared to die for the people and to serve people first, not themselves… so if we have to remember our leaders, let’s look back at ourselves. Are we disciplined? I doubt it, standing here.
“In the ANC, we fight in the streets among ourselves. Isn’t it so, SG?” he asked, pointing at ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, who was flanked by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and his predecessor, Kgalema Motlanthe.
Added Zuma: “Where are the principles? If we don’t have principles, how are we going to defend our movement and the country?”
Further taking a swipe at his detractors, whom he said had the propensity to criticise him unfairly, Zuma said Kotane’s approach to Marxism-Leninism was not dogmatic or religious, but used as an instrument to analyse society.
“His character made it extremely difficult to demonise (others)… They were not confrontational, they were strategic. They did not go for the man, they went for the ball. He understood with great depth, the organisation of the ANC/SACP,” said Zuma.
To applause, the President continued: “There are armchair critics who only know how to speak day and night but produce nothing. Most importantly, Moses Kotane was not an armchair politician.
“He was not an armchair revolutionary with a duty to only criticise every day and night, wrong there, wrong there (pointing).”
At times, an upbeat Zuma, who spoke with passion, appeared to give a lecture on Marxism-Leninism. “Moses Kotane had a scientific approach (to Marxism-Leninism) and if you take that approach, you never go wrong,” he said.
“We are dealing with science… knowledge obtained through observation critically tested and brought under one principle. So if you talk about Marxism-Leninism, you are talking about people who never go wrong because you are practising science and do not wake up every day to say here (there’s something wrong) and there.”
Describing Kotane as a “fighter, teacher, commissar, administrator, intellectual and an outstanding revolutionary,” Zuma said the story of South Africa would never be complete without him.
“We have to bring Ntate Kotane to our schools, communities and our workers – black and white. They should know this country produced more than just Mandela. He was an organic intellectual.”
Earlier, Dlamini made an impassioned plea for unity within Cosatu.
“We are calling on our unions, which have taken a decision to boycott the CEC of Cosatu, to come back. Your views are important inside Cosatu, please come back. We assure them their views are taken seriously. It’s revolutionary duty as Cosatu to keep going a united alliance led by the ANC,” he said.
And SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande also called on the tripartite alliance members not to define themselves outside of the coalition.
The sleepy village sprang to life yesterday as hundreds of politicians and government officials descended on the tiny settlement for the reburial of Kotane’s remains. Kotane’s frail widow, Mma Rebecca, 103, was also present to pay her last respects to her husband.
Kotane went into exile in 1963 in the face of apartheid laws in South Africa. He was reburied at his home village 36 years after he was buried in Moscow, where he died of a stroke in 1978.
Zuma had declared Kotane and Marks’ reburials as special official funerals.
Political Bureau