MGOLogoShort.JPG Interview with Bheki Ntshalintshali Matuma Letsoalo, Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, 26 November 2015 The newly elected COSATU general secretary, Bheki Ntshalintshali, has blamed and named senior members of the ANC-led tripartite alliance for the factional crisis that has wrecked the union federation in recent years. In an interview with the Mail and Guardian on the sidelines of the COSATU congress on Thursday, Ntshalintshali listed the ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, the South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary, Blade Nzimande, the SACP deputy chairperson and former general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU), Thulas Nxesi, and ANC national executive committee member Fikile Majola as being among those who intensified the factional battles in the federation. Bheki Ntshalintshali He said these leaders, who had a close personal relationship, formed an informal caucus and took decisions before COSATU central executive committee meetings. They would later use their influence to get these decisions rubber-stamped by the committee. "The issue of relationships between the leadership of COSATU and its affiliates has to be organizational all the time. It can't be a personal relationship to an extent that I can't tell you that 'this thing is wrong'. "One of the things that put COSATU in the mess that it was in was the relationship of what was called the 'progressive leaders' of the federation. Nzimande, [former general secretary Zwelinzima] Vavi, Mantashe, Majola and Nxesi were people who were sitting together deciding before the meetings of COSATU. When they disagreed, when this thing disintegrated, they were hating [each other] like nobody's business. They were not even on speaking terms. "I don't think you would hear Zweli talking about Mantashe being good, Nxesi being good. My view is that they moved beyond the organizational relationship. They had a personal relationship. When there was disagreement, they moved in all directions. I think we need to avoid that," he said. Mantashe said he did not understand why Ntshalintshali would talk about meetings of which he was not part. "Is he saying he was part of those meetings? He can't talk if he was not there. He is speculating. I can't give credence to speculations." Majola said he did not wish to talk about matters relating to COSATU. "It is not appropriate for me to continue talking about COSATU issues even after I left. If there are issues about me when I was NEHAWU [National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union] leader, the union must respond," he said. Nxesi said in an SMS: "I dismiss these lies with the contempt that they deserve. Bheki will never say that. It's your imagination, which is just meant to drive a wedge nor alienate certain individuals from COSATU - an agenda driven by you." Nshalintshali partly agreed with former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, who said the tripartite alliance was dead. "We can't deny everything that Mkhulwa [Motlanthe's nickname] raised. He is a man of integrity. He may not be as close as we are regarding some issues, or he might not be seeing any progress. He might be asking the same issues that workers are asking. 'You agreed on this thing but [it] is not happening'. If you can count about five things that we all agreed that there has been no progress on, he will be correct to make a conclusion and say, from where he is coming, [that] the alliance is not working'." Transcribed Full text available "in a couple of days" from: http://mg.co.za/article/2015-11-26-cosatu-speaks-by-electing-new-secretary-g eneral -- -- 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.
