WORKERS ARE THE LOSERS IN THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF COSATU

10 June 2015

COPE is saddened that Irvin Jim’s attempt to stay inside COSATU did not get judicial support. He tried his best, as we did, before being rebuffed by the leadership of the tripartite alliance. Those who do not play ball with President Zuma are forced to break away. Shakespeare would have said that there are those in power who know how to smile and wield the cleaver as they smile.

Narrow political interests have trumped the interest of workers.

What NUMSA was expelled for was nothing new. Recruiting across the sectors had gone on before. Numsa and Vavi, however, chose to put the interest of workers above that of the new political elite and that was like a red rag to the feeding bulls.

In 1986 workers brought South Africa to a standstill and PW Botha could do nothing about it.

Twenty-two years later COSATU and I (Willy Madisha) parted ways. I believed that President Mbeki was succeeding in growing the economy and managing the fiscus with great skill. The Zuma supporters believed differently. They had their way and now things are literally falling apart at COSATU and in the economy.

Vavi, however, later became very strident in his criticism about corruption and greed in the upper echelons of the party. President Zuma, as we all know, likes only sunshine journalism and the “kill for Zuma” type support. He mocks the opposition in parliament and expels through the means at his disposal those who do not dutifully and obediently toe the line.

As Vavi and Jim began to expose the ills of the casualization of labour and the concentration of BBEEE deals into the hands of a very narrow circle of highly connected individuals, they became the targets for persecution. Their stiff opposition to losses of jobs in the mines also began to upset those feeding at the trough, plentifully supplied by mining companies.

What we now see is the class struggle beginning to take shape.

Dlamini has presided over the splintering of COSATU. Over the last few years, as the economic engine continued to splutter, Eskom struggled to keep the lights on, and the National Treasury began to run out of money, the plight of workers incrementally worsened. Layoffs are continuing and the unemployed are losing hope.

The cheerleaders of the President, however, are still in buoyant mood but the mood of workers is becoming increasingly surly. Wise leadership would have healed the divisions and worked to revive the economy under a president who knew what he was doing. Alas, all of that is wishful thinking!

Workers are the losers as the battle for the soul of COSATU rages on. 

Statement issued by Willie Madisha MP, COPE Deputy President, June 10 2015