Johannesburg -
Cosatu’s unity and the stability of the tripartite alliance have been dealt a heavy blow following the expulsion of Numsa, the federation’s biggest affiliate.
The move, which came in the early hours on Saturday morning, followed leadership wrangles over the nature and direction of the alliance.
Cosatu’s allies were scrambling on Saturday to make sense of the implications of the federation’s move against Numsa.
The ruling ANC called for the “principled unity of the working class”.
Secretary-general Gwede Mantashe told Independent Media that “any division among or in any of the alliance partners is bad for the ANC and society”. The implications of Numsa’s ouster are vast. According to one former unionist close to the process, there is now a genuine fear of unions that support Numsa staging a walk out from Cosatu. This would be rendered more likely if the dominant faction responsible for the ouster decide to expel general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi next, he said.
“It’s more serious than people know. The problem now is that we don’t know what will be the reaction of the Numsa supporters,” said the former leader, who was involved in behind the scenes attempts to broker peace in Cosatu.
Numsa decided at its special congress to withdraw its electoral support for the ANC during the 2014 general elections, a move that put it on a collision course with other affiliates of Cosatu. The expulsion also signals the failure of mediation efforts led by ANC Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who tabled a report calling for unity and a rapproachment with Numsa just two weeks ago.
The matter is likely to top the agenda of the ANC’s top officials on Monday.
Mantashe said ANC officials would discuss the implications of the expulsion and the failure of its mediation efforts to secure unity.
Mantashe also said an alliance secretariat meeting scheduled for later this month would deliberate on the matter.
The secretariat brings together Mantashe, Vavi and SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande. That meeting is likely to be tense,with the three secretaries falling on different sides of the Cosatu divide.
“The alliance secretariat has a regular scheduled meeting at which a host of issues will be tackled. This will of course be one of the issues that the secretariat will have to discuss,” Mantashe said on Saturday.
This meeting will bring Vavi face to face with his alliance counterparts for the first time since Numsa’s axing.
Vavi himself face punitive action as a result of an internal disciplinary process that might well lead to his leaving the federation after 15 years at the helm.
Numsa was Vavi’s main backer in his battles with the rest of the Cosatu national office bearers, all of whom want him stripped of his post. Significantly, Nzimande is one of Vavi’s and Numsa’s detractors, and was accused by the union of leading a vilification campaign against its leaders.
In contrast to the guarded reaction of the ANC, the SACP backed the Cosatu decision to expel Numsa.
It backed what it said was the federation’s “upholding and defence of its founding organisational principles of “one industry one union”. “Poaching” of members from other unions - and thus undermining that principle - was one of the charges Numsa faced at the meeting.
The SACP would table the matter at a meeting tomorrow, it said. But it expressed its “full confidence” in Cosatu’s ability to “resolve whatever challenges it may face.”
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said the party’s efforts were “meant to maintain and preserve the unity” of Cosatu. “That’s why we took time to meet with each affiliate.”
- Sunday Independent