Johannesburg - Cosatu has snubbed an invitation from its former general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, to close ranks and form a united front in the public sector wage talks.
This comes after Vavi made a call for Cosatu unions to join hands with his federation, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), in launching a massive public sector strike to force the government to concede to a 7% wage increase.
The Star understands that Vavi wrote to Cosatu and the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) to seek support to broker a deal for public servants.
Cosatu’s spokesperson on the wage talks, Mugwena Maluleke, described Vavi’s call as a populist move that sought to steal members from other unions. He said the unity of workers was important and could be achieved if the intentions of leaders were clear.
“We are not going to support a strike called by Vavi. We will call a strike when we want to go on strike. Why should we support his strike? They want to send a message that they are leading these people in a recruitment drive, they are not in negotiations.”
Maluleke said it was through the efforts of Cosatu unions that the government was able to move from the initial 0% wage increase offer to a 1.5% offer.
He said Cosatu had been leading negotiations for years and had the numbers to pull a strike if it wanted to. “Who in this country does not know that Cosatu unions are militant and can go on strike if they want to go on strike?”
The Star