Johannesburg - Zwelinzima Vavi, the Cosatu general secretary, said he can’t defend its decision to expel the country’s largest union, which broke ranks by refusing to support the ruling African National Congress.
Vavi’s statement, in a letter to Cosatu officials, is a further indication of a split in the labour movement that helped topple apartheid and has supported the ANC since it took power.
On November 8, Cosatu expelled the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), which has about 350 000 members.
“I will not be able to defend a decision that I honestly believe is contradicting and undermining organised workers and broader working class unity, a decision that will have momentous implications for years to come,” he said in the letter, which was sent to the officials yesterday.
“There must be an alternative to this.”
Numsa is considering forming a new political party that would challenge the ANC in municipal elections in 2016.
The union accuses the ANC of pandering to the interests of companies and not doing enough to reduce poverty and a 25 percent unemployment rate.
Cosatu was formed in 1985 and helped mobilise protests against white-minority rule.
Its financial and organisational support for the ANC helped the party win more than 60 percent support in every election since 1994.
ANC Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a former mine union leader, failed in a bid to heal the rift within Cosatu.
‘No Winners’
“The risk we are facing is crystal clear – that we are in imminent danger of destroying what was painstakingly built through the blood and sweat of workers for many decades,” Vavi said.
“I believe that there will be no winners if we allow the federation to fracture permanently”
If Numsa wants to appeal the expulsion, it must provide written notice of its intention within 30 days, a Cosatu deputy president, Zingiswa Losi, told reporters yesterday in Johannesburg.
An appeal would be heard at Cosatu’s next congress in September, she said.
The ANC will ask Cosatu to reverse its decision to expel Numsa, party secretary-general and former mine union head Gwede Mantashe told reporters yesterday, saying “having a weaker ally is not good for the ANC.”
Cosatu Boycott
Seven of the federation’s 20 other affiliated unions on November 10 suspended their involvement in Cosatu and called for Numsa’s reinstatement.
Numsa’s backers include unions representing about 600 000 members, according to Katishi Masemola, general secretary of the Food and Allied Workers Union.
They plan to boycott Cosatu’s central executive committee meetings for the next three weeks.
They reiterated a call for Cosatu to convene a special national congress to plan a way forward for the federation.
Cosatu’s unraveling may also heighten labour tensions in Africa’s second-biggest economy, which is already reeling from the impact of protracted strikes by platinum miners and engineering workers as well as power shortages.
The National Treasury forecasts growth of 1.4 percent this year, the slowest pace since a 2009 recession.
Tensions within Cosatu flared when the federation’s leaders tried to oust Vavi in August 2013, suspending him for having an extra-marital affair with an employee.
The High Court in Johannesburg overturned his suspension on April 4.
Vavi has admitted to the affair and apologised for his behaviour. - Bloomberg News