Business Day
*Cosatu defiant as ANC reprimands Vavi* *Karima Brown, Business Day, Johannesburg, 23 June 2010 *THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) yesterday welcomed an African National Congress (ANC) decision to drop charges against its general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, but disputed that Mr Vavi "had gone too far" , saying it would not stop speaking out against corruption.
The ANC's national working committee yesterday made public its decision to abort plans to censure Mr Vavi , after weeks of speculation that it would do so. In a huge outcry, several Cosatu affiliates and the South African Communist Party warned the ANC action against Mr Vavi would be resisted.
Mr Vavi had incurred the ire of some ANC leaders when he accused the government of inertia in tackling claims of corruption allegedly involving Cabinet ministers.
What muddied the waters was Mr Vavi later being asked by a journalist whether he was referring to media reports linking Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda and Co- Operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka to alleged malfeasance. This led to Gen Nyanda threatening legal action if Mr Vavi did not apologise, which now seems inevitable after his refusal to do so.
At a briefing at ANC headquarters at Luthuli House yesterday, secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the working committee had decided , "in dealing with this alien behaviour, charging comrade Vavi will not be the best route to take. This is a political problem that must be addressed as such."
But the ANC took Mr Vavi to task, saying "the generalisation in talking about corruption must end ... Mentioning names of individual comrades as corrupt without facts is dangerous in that when such comrades are cleared, the allegations will not disappear."
The party also labelled Mr Vavi's actions "alien", a characterisation he rejected. He said fighting corruption and asking that allegations being made in newspapers were investigated could never be "alien" to the ANC.
Mr Vavi told Business Day that the ANC's move had "helped" the tripartite alliance to "move forward" and focus on critical issues.
However, he dismissed the contention that his comments had "gone too far". Mr Vavi said the only way to protect the reputation of the ANC was to ensure that perceptions that the party was soft on corruption when its own members were involved were dispelled.
He said the ANC's tough talk in its statement could be due to the party's need to "balance the internal problems".
"There are obviously some in the working committee that had to be appeased, especially those baying for my blood. "There is nothing wrong that I have done. What I said is contained in the central executive committee statement of Cosatu."
The working committee said it would "monitor closely" comments from ANC members, and that spats had to be dealt with internally, otherwise the members involved would face the party's disciplinary machinery. These comments were also dismissed by Mr Vavi.
"We are independent organisations, and it will never happen in our lifetime that one member of the alliance disciplines the leaders of another ally when they speak on the issues as mandated by their organisation," Mr Vavi said.
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