Vavi safe for now

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. Photo: BHEKI RADEBE

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi. Photo: BHEKI RADEBE

Published Mar 4, 2015

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Johannesburg - It appears Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has survived any new action being taken against him for now, following a possible decision by the federation’s central executive committee (CEC) to hold an extraordinary meeting to deal with him.

The possibility of a special CEC was discussed on Tuesday by the federation’s affiliates.

If it does go ahead, it will allow Vavi to respond to new allegations of financial misconduct following a fresh investigation by forensic auditing firm SizweNtsalubaGobodo.

Cosatu’s CEC is currently sitting in Johannesburg to discuss a number of issues, including the report.

According to insiders, it recommends that Vavi be sanctioned for not following Cosatu’s tender processes. But Vavi has argued in a written response that the new allegations against him do not stick and are part of a witchhunt to remove him from Cosatu.

The accusations centre around business Cosatu did with a company linked to Vavi’s wife, Noluthando. She is one of the directors of Simethebile Holdings, together with Craig Greene, who is the sole member of VMS Technologies South Africa CC. Vavi’s step-daughter worked for VMS for four months and was paid R12 000. The company was chosen from a shortlist to supply Cosatu’s new head office with telecoms. It also provided technology for a fingerprinting system at the offices.

The auditing firm claims that no other service providers were engaged before making the decision to appoint VMS. But Vavi will argue that VMS, Xerox, Canon and Gestetner were engaged. The deal was signed off by Vavi and Cosatu’s other office bearers in 2006.

Vavi, who as general secretary is meant to be in charge of Cosatu’s finances, will also disagree with a charge that a comparable analysis was not done between the four companies.

The forensic report also claims that Vavi did not follow Cosatu’s tender process as nothing was advertised in newspapers when fridges were bought. But it is understood that the federation only has a draft tender document that was never signed off by its national office bearers (NOBs).

It does have a financial policy which states that there has to be three quotes from competing companies before making a decision.

The four fridges were bought by VMS from Samsung at considerably less as factory prices were paid for them.

If the special CEC is convened, Vavi will also have to explain why he is boycotting the current executive meeting.

He did inform Cosatu’s other NOBs on Sunday that he would not attend the CEC. This followed a decision by affiliates who want Numsa returned to the Cosatu fold to boycott the meeting which ends on Wednesday.

“I don’t believe you can build unity by pretending it’s business as usual when half of the unions have written you letters saying they are boycotting in protest,” the general secretary said on Monday.

While some unionists have speculated that Vavi could be suspended again, it has not been confirmed by Cosatu. He had to go to court last year to get his first suspension lifted as it was illegal.

Group Labour Editor

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