Johannesburg - Cosatu and the ANC are scrambling to prevent the federation from imploding following the decision last weekend to expel its biggest affiliate, Numsa.
Cosatu’s senior leaders and their fellow bigwigs in the ANC were on Saturday racing against time to meet the seven aggrieved affiliates that have threatened to join Numsa and ditch the embattled federation.
Numsa will this week also be weighing its options and meeting with the Cosatu affiliates that are supporting it.
The Sunday Independent understands that Cosatu’s national officebearers (NOBs) are also engaged in concerted efforts to diffuse tensions within some of the unions that are increasingly being torn apart by Numsa’s expulsion.
Should the conflict not be dealt with more quickly, it could result in some affiliates splitting into factions aligned to either Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini or beleaguered general secretary Zwelin- zima Vavi.
This comes against the backdrop of fears that Vavi may ditch the federation, as the tremor resulting from Numsa’s purging reverberates throughout Cosatu’s 19 affiliates.
Numsa spokesman Castro Ngobese confirmed the union would hold a national executive committee meeting on Friday over its expulsion. He said it would consider its options, which may include the legal challenge to the expulsion.
On Saturday, the union will hold a joint sitting with the seven Cosatu affiliates supporting it.
Dlamini said on Saturday the federation had lined up a series of meetings with the affiliate unions, starting with today’s shopstewards’ meeting at the Durban city hall.
A CEC meeting has also been scheduled for Wednesday to deal with the crisis. During the week, Cosatu will also meet with individual leaders of some of the affiliates.
Dlamini appealed for calm on Saturday. “We are calling for everybody to stay inside Cosatu, even if they think they have things they are not happy about,” he said, also appealing for rival union leaders to desist from making disparaging remarks about one another.
“We are also working with the ANC and everyone for the unity of the federation. People must stop making insulting statements about each other.”
The ANC’s task team to mediate in the crisis met the office-bearers on Thursday. The governing party also appealed to members to ensure unity. “We will continue to avail ourselves to meet with Cosatu leaders and the individual affiliates. We don’t think the challenges facing Cosatu are insurmountable,” said ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa.
This comes as Vavi renewed his war talk against Cosatu and the ANC-led government for sacrificing the interests and welfare of the workers for self-interest, factionalism and corruption.
A defiant Vavi went as far as daring Cosatu to fire him for the letter he wrote to the federation last Monday objecting to Numsa’s expulsion.
“I don’t care about the consequences,” Vavi told hundreds of mourners at a memorial service for a slain Free State unionist in Zamdela township in Sasolburg.
Dlamini would not be drawn on whether Cosatu would sanction Vavi for the latest broadside on the federation.
“He is the general secretary and belongs to the collective. Whatever issues, there is a platform to address them. What is important is that decisions of the federation are not personal. We are working with him to find a solution,” Dlamini said.
Attempts to get comment from Vavi were unsuccessful on Saturday.
If Numsa’s presentation at the CEC meeting is anything to go by, a Cosatu’s split seems cast in stone.
The presentation, made by Numsa’s general secretary Irvin Jim, exposed the extent of the irretrievable breakdown in the relationships between the federation and its biggest affiliate.
Numsa had, while responding to each of the charges, questioned the integrity and motives of the Cosatu, ANC and SACP leadership.
The union was also critical of the role of the SACP in the Cosatu crisis, and justified withholding its funds from the Cosatu/SACP levy.
It further claimed the call it made for Cosatu to break from the alliance was not the first, as it had made a similar call in 1993, but was never expelled.
According to Numsa, Cosatu had a policy position which stated that the CEC must review the workings of the alliance from time to time, accusing leaders of trying to stifle debate, unlike previous leaders who handled that call differently.
“We are calling on our federation to change its policy. That is not just a right as an affiliate. That is our revolutionary duty. We did exactly the same in 1993.
“The only difference in 1993 was that we weren’t threatened with expulsion for doing so. In 1993 the debate was handled properly, by leaders who were interested in democratic debate leading to unity in action.
It said Cosatu had been consumed by “internal battles between two forces; those who continue to support the ANC and SACP, with its neoliberal agenda, and those who, despite their understanding of the ANC as a multi-class organisation, consciously and consistently fight for an independent, militant federation which stands for the interests of the working class before any other”.
But Numsa was more scathing on its response to why it had ceased to pay its contribution into the Cosatu/SACP levy.
The union said it saw no reason to give money to the SACP as it had launched several attacks against it.
Sunday Independent