Cosatu’s Vavi is furious with Zuma
2010-02-14 14:00
By George Matlala and
Moffet Mofokeng
THE ANC and its ally, Cosatu, are heading for yet another colossal
clash set to further deepen cracks in the tripartite alliance.
This emerged after Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi called
for a lifestyle audit of politicians and senior government officials this
week.
Vavi also expressed deep-seated concerns about Zuma’s state of the
nation address, following the president’s omission of key labour issues from his
speech.
Cosatu’s call for the audit can be interpreted as part of a
strategy to target some in the alliance who are against trade unionists and
communists as the race for the ANC leadership hots up before its 2012 elective
conference.
At the heart of the battles is the federation’s belief that the
political problems affecting the ruling party emanated from those “who had
amassed wealth in mysterious ways and attempted to divert attention from their
lifestyle to the challenges of leadership in the ANC”, say Vavi.
The ANC Youth League warned that ANC secretary-general and SACP
president Gwede Mantashe might not retain his position, should the league not
support him in two years’ time.
In an interview with City Press yesterday, Vavi said the group
(which is causing the troubles) was making “unsubstantiated allegations about
communists and unionists taking over the ANC. We decided to speak out on this
issue,” he said.
Vavi said this group, which he did not name, lived in expensive
houses. “Follow them to their homes and ask them where do they get the money to
buy those properties. You will get interesting answers.”
He further criticised the lavish parties thrown by the group
throughout the year. The group, Vavi added, thought that the struggle was about
the accumulation of wealth instead of uplifting society and defeating
poverty.
The federation said it was concerned that Zuma had said nothing on
Thursday night about how he intended to “avoid exploitation of workers and
ensure decent work for all workers as well as to protect the employment
relationship, introduce laws to regulate contract work, subcontracting and out-
sourcing, address the problem of labour- broking and prohibit certain abusive
practices” as envisaged in last year’s ANC manifesto.
“The rapid casualisation
of labour is wreaking havoc with the lives of thousands of workers, as
relatively secure and well-paid jobs are being replaced by casual, temporary,
insecure and low-paid forms of employment.
Labour brokers are the chief drivers
of this process and we shall continue to demand that labour-broking has no role
to play in a decent-work economy and that government must legislate to ban it,”
the organisation said.
- City Press