Vavi and NUMSA must move on with their lives Thomas Mhlanga, The New Age, Johannesburg, 21 July 2015 After 18 months demanding of COSATU president Sdumo Dlamini to call for a special national congress, it has finally come and gone. It happened without the participation of the expelled NUMSA and the booted former general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, though this was much expected. Prior to this special congress, many analysts, NUMSA leaders and of course Vavi predicted a split of this giant federation. Some anticipated a comeback of the expelled NUMSA and Vavi through the other eight affiliates that are sympathetic to the former. However, delegates were clear that they don't want Vavi and NUMSA's issue to be debated by the congress. All the noise they were making about the birth of the new trade union federation on the day of the special congress was all talk but no action. It was just another propaganda to confuse the already confused workers, in particular those belonging to the so-called "group of 8". On the contrary, delegates have reaffirmed that the unity and cohesion of COSATU is still sacrosanct. I often wonder what happened to the clarion call, "workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains" if some leaders of the unions are agitating for the fracture of the workers' parliament, COSATU. What will be the benefit of having another trade union federation in this country? I don't think another federation will benefit the workers but those who see it as another avenue for business unionism to serve their stomach. Having being part of the congress and from what I have observed from the delegates is that, there is no new trade union that will be formed. Even those who want NUMSA and Vavi back reaffirmed that indeed COSATU is their home. So the question is: who is going to be part of this new federation? Are they going to fake numbers just like AMCU? Experience teaches us that a divided trade union will never serve the interests of workers but those of the employers. So for Irvin Jim, Vavi and others to call for a new federation is not strategic. They should rather mend their ways and perhaps they will be allowed back to COSATU. The founding principles of COSATU - One Union, One Industry; One Country, One Federation - are still relevant. On July 15 Vavi was speaking on talk radio 702, claiming that the voting in the special congress was wrong and that some delegates were preselected and those delegates were in the faction of the leadership of COSATU. These allegations are a clear indication that Vavi is just another bitter soul; he is bitter that even without him COSATU is moving on. He is bitter that the much-anticipated split did not occur. He is also bitter that his issue and that of NUMSA was knocked out by delegates and the chance of a comeback is almost zero percent. The biggest problem is that Vavi and company translated their media coverage, especially their followers on Twitter, into number of delegates attending the special congress. They were proven wrong. Vavi should be reminded that his downfall is of his own making. He is the one who disregarded the constitution of COSATU; he is the one who misused the federation's resources and time to have sex in COSATU's offices. He is forgetting that COSATU was not paying him to have sex but to perform duties as stipulated in the constitution. To claim on national radio that the voting in the congress was not fair clearly indicates that this man does not understand COSATU's constitution. It was delegates who wanted to vote, but unfortunately those who were defeated want to see this process as unfair. They are forgetting that they also participated in it. This special congress rubber-stamped Vavi and NUMSA's future. They should forget about the split and move on with their lives. Pity they spent so much money for this prophetic split to occur but they got the opposite of it. Workers do not want a split, but unity and cohesion in COSATU. The workers parliament reaffirmed this. Vavi and NUMSA are not victims here but workers are. This is because all the problems that COSATU is facing manifested under Vavi's leadership. He is the one to be blamed. . Tom Mhlanga is a former BA student at Wits. He writes in his personal capacity. From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/21072015/epaperpdf/19.pdf -- -- 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. 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