Johannesburg - The political fallout over Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi’s rape charges has taken another turn.
Now the federation’s biggest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), has denounced the sex scandal as a second desperate attempt by Vavi’s rivals to kick him out of the divided Cosatu.
In what seems like tit-for-tat, Numsa on Monday said it had lost confidence in Vavi’s rival, Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini, who it labelled a “factionalist”.
Numsa deputy secretary Karl Cloete said the plot had fizzled out, with Vavi’s accusers having failed to produce “a shred of evidence” to the committee probing Vavi.
The union said attempts to get rid of Vavi had now been revived - this time by using the disgraced general secretary’s extramarital affair with a junior Cosatu employee in January. Vavi admitted to the affair and has apologised.
Numsa president Cedric Gina was adamant that the new allegations against Vavi, raised months after the incident, were the work of those still unhappy about Vavi’s unopposed election during the elective conference last year.
At the media conference, all Numsa leaders were united in their support for Vavi, and called on Cosatu to cancel its special central executive committee meeting on Wednesday, saying it was going to be all about Vavi.
“The meeting is going to be about the dismissal of Vavi, nothing else. Allegations of financial impropriety are not an issue anymore.
“There is no evidence against him in the sale of Cosatu House. Vavi is a scapegoat. Numsa wants Cosatu leaders to strive towards the restoration of the values and principles of Cosatu instead of being involved in factions,” Cloete said.
Numsa suggested that Dlamini was behind the plot to unseat Vavi as cracks in the troubled trade union federation deepened. The union believed Dlamini had jumped to conclusions in Vavi’s sex scandal.
It also believed that reasons for convening Wednesday’s meeting had been “contaminated and prejudged by (Dlamini’s) public utterances wherein he determined that (Vavi) had brought the federation into disrepute long before the CEC (central executive committee) had an opportunity to receive a report on the matter”.
Cloete accused Dlamini of employing a “factional approach instead of steering the ship and ensuring that we rescue the organisation”.
Gina said Vavi’s detractors were “looking for anything that can be found just so that Vavi is out of the way”.
“Part of (Dlamini’s) responsibilities are to ensure that Cosatu is united at all times and not to impose his opinion in public about so-and-so bringing the organisation into disrepute,” he said.
Gina said Dlamini was two-faced, having failed to speak when Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu) general secretary Simon Mofokeng was alleged to have used his position to secure a dodgy multimillion-rand deal with Sasol.
He said Dlamini had failed as a “unifier” in the federation.
Gina said that when he had expressed concerns about a “possible implosion” of Cosatu, he had been told to engage presidents of other affiliates and “find solutions”.
The union expressed low levels of confidence in Dlamini’s leadership.
Dlamini did not want to comment on the allegations.
The Star