Port Elizabeth - Factions within the Congress of SA Trade Unions are using internal processes to get rid of general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, Numsa in the Eastern Cape said on Tuesday.
“The political career and revolutionary life of comrade Vavi has been made a misery since the Cosatu national congress where a reactionary anti-working class faction attempted to contest him, and failed,” regional secretary Phumzile Nodongwe said in a statement.
“Even before the dust had settled on the Cosatu congress in which comrade Vavi was elected unopposed, this faction transferred their attacks and fight to remove comrade Vavi to the internal processes of Cosatu.”
Nodongwe said the National Union of Metalworkers of SA's 31 420 members in the province were supporting Vavi.
Last month, a junior employee at Cosatu accused Vavi of rape. He admitted to having a sexual affair with the woman but said it was consensual.
The woman subsequently withdrew her sexual harassment complaint against him.
Cosatu will hold a special CEC meeting in Johannesburg on Wednesday where Vavi could reportedly face possible sanction for his admission of the affair.
Nodongwe said it was clear there was a concerted effort to deal with Vavi's “political character” because he had been outspoken about how the African National Congress had implemented policies detrimental to the working class and the poor.
“We will continue to support the general secretary of Cosatu as long as he is still the servant and the slave of the working class and the poor,” he said.
Sapa