Moves afoot to suspend and discipline Vavi Sibongakonke Shoba, Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 11 August 2013 Embattled COSATU boss Zwelinzima Vavi could be suspended this week if his opponents have their way at a crucial trade union federation meeting scheduled for Wednesday. A number of influential COSATU affiliates told the Sunday Times that they would be pushing for the outspoken General Secretary's suspension as well as for disciplinary charges to be laid against him at a special central executive committee meeting. Vavi has been accused by a COSATU staffer of having forced himself on her during an encounter in her office on January 25. Vavi has denied raping her, insisting that they had consensual sex and were having an extramarital affair. The scandal has sharpened differences in COSATU, with Vavi's opponents saying he has brought the federation into disprepute and his backers believing that the scandal does not affect his ability to lead the trade union federation. A report is expected on the hearing two weeks ago. An influential union boss who asked not to be named said the Vavi issue was a "clear disciplinary matter". "We are guided by policies. You can have a relationship with whoever. But you can't have sex in the office of your employer. Reason must prevail. Those who are against the suspension must tell us if the sex did happen. If it did then reason must prevail." Fikile Majola, general secretary of NEHAWU, said: "We are deeply worried about the image of COSATU - that is why we have asked for this special central executive committee [meeting]. We are shocked that we were not called earlier and briefed about what is happening," said Majola. Vavi's backers believe his apology last week negated further action against him. FAWU General Secretary Katishi Masemola said: "We think the apology was sufficient and we must accept the apology and move on. But if people think that this indiscretion by Vavi must be graduated from a grievance to a disciplinary matter, then people must motivate and we will debate the matter. But we don't see a reason why it must be graduated to a disciplinary matter. the matter must be closed." >From the hard copy, transcribed manually. -- -- 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] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
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