 Rocky road ahead of 2012 electives Turmoil tears alliance apart as the leaders differ publicly The road to the 2012 conferences of the ANC and its alliance partners has become murkier with Cosatu and the SA Communist Party at each other's throats amid a split in the worker's federation over succession. Cosatu has been rocked by divisions among its senior leaders, with some affiliates siding with the federation's general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi while others support SACP boss Blade Nzimande. Nzimande is understood to also have Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini in his corner. The Young Communist League (YCL) set the cat among the pigeons this week when it accused a "faction" within Cosatu and its two affiliates - metalworkers union Numsa and teachers union Sadtu - of undermining Nzimande and plotting to remove him at the SACP's congress next year. Cosatu wants Nzimande to leave his job - as higher education minister - to return to his SACP position full-time. All three alliance partners will hold elective conferences next year where Jacob Zuma will seek another term as ANC president. It is still not clear whether Vavi will remain as Cosatu general secretary amid suspicions among communists that he is eyeing Nzimande's position as SACP boss. Cosatu and the SACP will meet later this month to try to iron out their differences. Numsa responded with anger to the YCL's charge, with general secretary Irvin Jim accusing Nzimande of "using children" to fight his battles. Sadtu president Thobile Ntola dismissed the claims saying the YCL was "paranoid". Vavi also rubbished the claims and told the central committee of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Thursday that the alliance was disintegrating as a result of the infighting. "What exists is a difference of opinion on whether it is helpful for the SACP and the struggle for socialism to have (Nzimande) who is not full-time in the head offices of the SACP. This is not an attack; this is not an agenda of a regime change. It is not a view of any individual but a decision taken by the collective leadership of the federation," said Vavi. He also accused the ANC and the SACP of failing the workers. Political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi said the split was not so much that of the alliance but rather that of the coalition which brought Zuma to power. "What is unraveling here is more the Zuma coalition that was created prior to Polokwane by the alliance itself. So there is more merit in the argument that Zuma's coalition of which Vavi and Cosatu were a prominent member, Nzimande and the SACP were prominent members, Julius Malema and the ANC Youth League were prominent members ... that coalition has been unraveling since Zuma was elected in 2009," said Matshiqi. He predicted more turmoil ahead of the 2012 conferences. Vavi is seen to be closer to Numsa and Sadtu while leaders of the federation's biggest affiliates, NUM and the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) are close to Nzimande. Insiders at Cosatu said relations between Vavi and Dlamini had cooled - with the latter seen to be closer to Zuma and Nzimande. "The Presidency invited (Dlamini) to the labour summit (in April) instead of Vavi. He was also at the main May Day rally in the Western Cape. You can see that we are going to have another case of a general secretary and president clashing, like we did with (former Cosatu president Willie) Madisha," said a unionist. Dlamini angered his Cosatu colleagues when he told the May Day rally that workers were giving the ANC a "blank cheque" and their support during the election campaign, was without "conditions". This was in direct contrast to Vavi who has repeatedly warned the ruling party not to take the workers' support for granted. Dlamini defended his comments and said they were within the context of the recent local government elections. "When you go for an election, you do not take a chance and say you are going to put down conditions ... before you vote for the ANC. If you do that you run the risk of members not voting for the ANC," he said. -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . |
