LETTER TO ZWELINZIMA VAVI Dear cde Vavi, I hope this latter finds u very well: Let me begin by stating that I am not a fan of letters (whether opened or closed) but since u chose to address internal matters of the very same organisation that you lead through a letter, I believe its only fair for me to address u through a letter also since I cannot be part of the decision makings of COSATU. Cde Vavi, there are no doubts you boast one of the inspiring struggle credentials in particular at the work place. In 1999 you took over as the General Secretary from Mbhazima Shilowa. This makes it close to a decade and a half at the helm of this giant trade union federation. For this you have earned lot of respect from all sections of society. There is no doubt that you have earned that respect. But something went wrong with the Vavi that we all loved and respected and these problems have got nothing to do with political witch-hunts but you contributed to the crisis that we are witnessing in COSATU now. It is alleged that NUMSA under the leadership of Jim and Cloete were lobbying for you to be the deputy president of the ANC in Mangaung of which then Jim was seen as your successor at COSATU. This did not materialised and since then there has been rapture in the congress movement because selfish interests that has got nothing to do with the working class and the poor that you claim to be leading. Since the Mangaung conference of 2012, NUMSA has tried very hard to project itself as the true vanguard of the working class and the poor. In so doing, they have since tried to project the current leadership of the ruling party as the main culprits hence they are now advocating for a pseudo-socialist party that will only exist to further divide and derail the struggles of the working class and the poor. Let me also remind you that all these problems that we are witnessing now are happening under your watch and yet you did nothing to correct them, instead you also took sides of the particular unions. Cde Vavi, we know why you did so. One of the many reasons is that you were trying to save your own political skin more than anything else. No one ask you to sleep with an employee at COSATU house, you failed to follow proper procedures when selling the old COSATU House and buying the new COSATU House, but you go around talking about political witch-hunts that are imaginary. If you really believe that you were innocent on these issues you should have come out and defend yourself. Instead you looked for scape goats, and fortunately for you there are unions like NUMSA who are always ready to fight your proxy wars. They even kept quite when you as the leader of COSATU called your own employee “Nomphatazana”. I don’t want to go to the details of the meaning but I believe it was wrong for you to use such words. After the expulsion of NUMSA (your chief-defendists), you decided to take a very reactionary decision. You have since defined yourself outside COSATU. I am surprised you even have guts to mentioned democratic centralism in your letter but yet you disregard the meaning of the concepts. As the General Secretary of COSATU you should be among the chief advocates of COSATU decisions and positions. You don’t just name-drop “democratic centralism” for the sake of it. In your letter you wrote: From that point of view I plead with you to understand that I will not be able to defend a decision that I honestly believe is contradicting and undermining organised workers and broader working class unity, a decision that will have momentous implications for years to come.….You also continued to say: I believe we have to now put personal considerations and feelings aside…We have arrived at a point in my view where the future of the federation must transcend who is right or wrong, or which faction is correct or mistaken or who has the numbers or not. In my view it is very opportunistic of you to say these words while at the same time disregarding COSATU’s position on this matter. Finally, I strongly believe that you have access to all these people and unions you wrote letters to and as the GS you know very well that NUMSA have the right to appeal this decision and you distancing yourself from the decisions of the same organisation that you lead is nothing but political immaturity. If you strongly believe that you can’t associate yourself with the decisions of COSATU then I advise that you do the most honourable thing and resign. But so doing, you will have all the time in the world to be a “Free Agent”. Best Regards, Tom Mhlanga Tom Mhlanga is a BA student at Wits, writing in his personal capacity. 078 708 7859/ 074 637 0414
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 21:05:27 +0000
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