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'Don't drag ANC into Cosatu battle' George Matlala and Marianne Merten, The Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, 18 August 2013 ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has warned embattled Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi and his backers not to drag the ANC into the ferocious factional battles tearing the trade union federation apart. "The reality of the matter is that they are trying to draw us into this matter. We don't want to be drawn into that mud," Mantashe told The Sunday Independent yesterday. "If we wanted to form a labour desk, we (would) not need Cosatu." He reiterated his hard-hitting message delivered at the March Cosatu bargaining and campaigns conference: that Cosatu was weakening itself by dealing with its challenges in public. "A weak Cosatu is bad generally, not (only) for the elections. It is bad for industrial relations," he said, adding that Cosatu leaders had to be "loyal" to the organisation's decisions and deal with them internally. On Friday, Vavi said a campaign was under way to "reduce Cosatu into a labour desk of the governing party, where leaders, whose ambitions are to serve in Parliament and cabinet, will be able to advance their individual personal careers". Meanwhile, Cosatu is forging ahead with the disciplinary action against Vavi, despite court case which could reveal more dirty linen as the labour federation struggles to shut the lid on its internal tensions. It is understood the meeting of Cosatu national office-bearers and affiliates' presidents to draft a charge sheet and appoint an independent chairman for the disciplinary hearing could happen as soon as next week. In announcing Vavi's suspension on Thursday after its special central executive committee meeting, Cosatu said it wanted to wrap up the hearing by its next CEC meeting in mid-September. Vavi on Friday contradicted [Cosatu president Sdumo] Dlamini's insistence that there were no divisions or political campaigns behind its actions against its general-secretary. He challenged [the] Cosatu president's instructions to affiliates "not to pronounce outside the protocol that we have agreed to, if your intention is to be in Cosatu". Vavi said he could not just resign, as "it would be a victory to the forces that are sitting in the long queue at the corruption feeding trough". The embattled suspended labour federation leader announced court action to overturn his suspension. His ousting was part of a political smear campaign and was "substantially and procedurally unfair" in the absence of criminal charges and the withdrawal of Cosatu's internal sexual harassment grievance by the married junior employee with whom Vavi admitted to having an office affair. Vavi has been at the centre of controversy since the February Cosatu CEC, when allegations of mismanagement and nepotism emerged against him. Reports by independent facilitators on internal tensions were to have been tabled at the May CEC, but are now only expected next month. From: http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/don-t-drag-anc-into-cosatu-battle-1.15640 05#.UhCPmZIwfmg -- -- 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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