Immoral Vavi is not the one to lead a moral crusade Willem van Wyk, The New Age, Johannesburg, 23 July 2015 It appears that Zwelinzima Vavi has positioned himself to be a counter moral campaign to what is perceived to be a morally flawed leadership style of the present leaders. However, Mr Vavi is a weak link in the moral sphere since he is not above reproach, and he knows this very well. So far we know that in his line of duty he has had two relationships with women his juniors, one now being his wife. That's what the public knows. What else do we not know pertaining to his conduct when it relates to female junior colleagues, one wonders? But even more striking is his defence when confronted with his own flawed character. His responses have been pointing to his bigotry on issues of gender relations and the accompanying power relations in a patriarchal society. In answer to comments made from the floor by female delegates his response is to simply dismiss the comments and blame it on men who have kids with staff in the office. If we follow this sick logic of Vavi, women have no agency in COSATU and cannot be his political opponents. They just follow men. Is this how Vavi relates with the woman question in the gender struggle? He merely sees women as tools to be used by men in palace politics. But we all know that Vavi's problematic relationship with the woman question is not new. Cast your mind back to comments attributed to Vavi on the eve of the famous ANC Polokwane conference, when he spoke about "legendary womanisers" in the heat of the debate about 50/50 gender parity. But what Vukani Mde calls white internet has forgiven Vavi because he is now a useful tool in the anti-Zuma charade. What is even worse is the fact that the same Vavi went on to call the lady affected "nompathaza". I don't want to go into the details of the meaning of the word but my understanding is that it is leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of the person the words are attributed to. What about his claims on corruption, including the march he is organising in August? Is this not the man who ran away to answer questions about the transaction involving the old COSATU House and the new COSATU House? How can a fugitive from accountability in COSATU now be a compass of the struggle against corruption? Is this not the man who got himself entangled in an improper relationship with a supplier at COSATU while he was general secretary? Vavi will never answer this question in a due process outlined by COSATU. He will simply rubbish the process (is this different from the people he is criticising?) and move on to answer on social media. That is not good enough to win you brownies to lead an anticorruption campaign, Vavi. I think it is time South Africans, and the media in particular, stop taking this man seriously. We know that he won't stop. His Twitter account will be filled with bitterness and insults at those he feels have wronged him. We also know the reason behind his barking like a toothless dog is because now his not so invisible bosses, NUMSA and company, pay him a R50000 monthly salary to make noise. If he was genuine he would reject that salary because he knows he doesn't work for it. . Willem van Wyk is a member of NUMSA and writes in his personal capacity From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/23072015/epaperpdf/18.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. 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/d/optout.
