Vavi to Submit 'Explosive' Report on South African Labor Federation

Zwelinzima Vavi, the Secretary General of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The organization claims two million members., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

National & Provincial
Jul 23 2013 5:11AM

Vavi to submit ‘explosive’ report

Luyolo Mkentane
New Age, South Africa

Labour federation Cosatu has refused to comment on reports that its general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, was set to submit an “explosive” report on the state of Cosatu’s unions.

It was reported at the weekend that Vavi would soon submit a report on Cosatu’s central executive committee investigation focusing on the union’s organisational, financial and administrative affairs.

Vavi could not be reached for comment yesterday. Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said: “This is an internal process. We are not making any comment during this process.”

A Sunday newspaper said Vavi painted a bleak picture of the federation’s unions poaching members from each other, and this was part of Vavi’s fight-back strategy following allegations of financial impropriety against him.

During the Gauteng provincial shop stewards’ council meeting in April, Vavi bemoaned competition among Cosatu’s 19 affiliates, saying it created tension. He said that instead of poaching members from each other, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) needed to merge to foster unity and strength.

Other unions that needed to merge, Vavi said, was the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union and the Chemical Energy Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union.

Irvin Jim, general secretary of Cosatu’s biggest union, Numsa, in addressing the union’s national bargaining conference in Pretoria in April, admitted there were challenges between them and the NUM. Both unions organised in the metal sector.

However Jim denied they poached members from each other, saying workers were not rhino and could not be poached.

Numsa is now Cosatu’s biggest affiliate, boasting a membership of 320000. NUM, which was previously the biggest union, lost thousands of members during last year’s wildcat strikes in the mining industry.

luyolom@thenewage.co.