VAVI’S INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP-SEEKING ENVOY A QUACK

16 August 2015

 In the last month, Irvin Jim of NUMSA and Zwelinzima Vavi, the defunct former COSATU General Secretary went on a wicked solidarity-seeking mission in which all was said about the rest, but nothing about the role they played.

A clip titled “The struggle for Justice inside the South African Freedom Movement” (see below) is nothing but an exaggerated fuss which has nothing to do with its title, but a publicity-seeking stint that is slowly swindling away from the once media-happy former General Secretary whom during his ‘heydays’ opted to abandon organisational processes and instead communicate with the media.

It is important to acknowledge that any form of struggle is not an event, but a process. In a process, there are continuous engagements and dynamics at play, and in this regard, our federation has rules and guidelines for maintaining order and guide our scope. In this sense, the principle of Democratic Centralism provides a uniting knack behind all agreed positions.

Mr Vavi seems to belittle the decisions taken with him as part of the COSATU leadership and creates a false and dishonest impression that he was not part to such, when a collective had endorsed that members of the union and different affiliates should form part of government, a move that would seek to see more unionists swaying policy issues towards benefitting workers.

He himself had ambitions of being Deputy President of the ANC when he clandestinely campaigned for self-centred position. He campaigned for this position as a role which would have seen him assuming the Deputy Presidency position, in Government and ultimately taking over government of South Africa in 2019. Having failed on his covert operations, he now resorts to character assassinations and blames everybody except himself.

To claim that some were defocused by Parliament and that divisions within the Trade Union movement are as part of or resultant to the idea that the ANC under Zuma have simply co-opted the SACP and COSATU is a travesty to past COSATU and South African Communist Party decisions respectively.

Both Vavi and Jim, in their fundraising campaign, failed to be honest to their potential about the role they had been playing. They speak as if this was an event they shockingly watched on TV with disbelief and as commentators.

This is simply so because they know very well that after all and done, decisions were endorsed by the federation and accordingly implemented; something which might not be familiar with them called democratic centralism.

Jim himself was part of the divisive elements when they were poaching members from other sister unions in their quest to usurp the union, an attempts which dismally nosedived.

The recent COSATU Special National Congress reaffirmed some these COSATU decisions as eminent and relevant, and regardless of what the likes of Vavi may put forth, the Tripartite Alliance does recognise that there is still a lot to be done in improving the conditions of our people the country over, and that it is our collective responsibility to ensure as such.

Statement issued by POPCRU, August 16 2015