COSATU's response to Helen Zille
The Congress of South African Trade Unions rejects with utter contempt the ludicrous and defamatory accusation by Democratic Alliance leader, Helen Zille, that "Zwelinzima Vavi is engaged in a campaign to construct for himself a power base, from which he will attempt to capture the alliance at the ANC's 2017 conference".
Her outburst is motivated purely by envy at COSATU's ability to mobilise millions of South Africans of all races in its campaigns, something which she knows she can never do. So she resorts to personalising a political attack on the trade unions with a smear against one of its leaders.
The COSATU General Secretary is highly popular and respected, democratically elected workers' representative who works under a mandate from successive COSATU National Congresses, whose delegates are elected by the federation's over two million members.
Comrade Vavi has repeatedly denied that he has any ambitions other than to be a workers' representative and a spokesperson of the exploited and poor majority of South Africans. He has resisted pressure to stand for the ANC National Executive Committee precisely because it might undermine his position as the voice of the workers.
There is not a word of the truth in Zille's absurd allegation against him, and even less in her even more ridiculous suggestion that "President Jacob Zuma's government is in office, but it is not in power", because "COSATU exercises a veto over government policy in education, labour and economic reform."
This is flatly contradicted by the many areas on which COSATU has sharply disagreed and even fought against government policies, such as e-tolling in Gauteng, proposals to undermine the right to strike and the refusal to ban labour brokering.
Such preposterous charges can only mean that the DA leader has ulterior motives for such an attack on a workers' leader, and, sure enough, in the same speech to students at the University of Stellenbosch, she confirmed that this was not just a personal attack on an individual but an act of war against all workers and their federation, on behalf of her friends in the boardrooms of big business.
She regurgitated all their reactionary arguments for weakening labour laws, making it easier for bosses to hire and fire workers, end collective bargaining - one of the main weapons which workers have won to defend and improve their rights - and cut their wage bill through the youth wage subsidy.
"South Africa, she said, needed a more flexible and responsive labour market, where wages responded to productivity and industry needs, while still protecting workers. It also needs to give young people a chance to work and to get a foot in the door of the job market."
"The restrictive centralised bargaining regime currently enforced in South Africa means that massive corporations and tiny start-ups are subject to the same wage bargaining process. This is a massive disincentive to start businesses and a huge financial burden for existing small businesses. Its animating purpose is solely to protect its own members' interests," she says.
That can only mean that COSATU should stop protecting its members' interests! But COSATU also totally rejects her suggestion that it is trying to "masquerade" as the champion of the poor, who are not union members.
As we have constantly argued, lowering wages and increasing the ranks of the working poor hits not only the union members but their millions of dependent family members. It also further cuts the level of demand for goods and services and thus threatens other workers' jobs.
COSATU is not at all surprised at this attack. It confirms everything we have been saying about the DA's right-wing, pro-rich and pro-business agenda. She is not and never will be a friend of the workers and the poor.
Statement issued by Patrick Craven, COSATU national spokesperson, April 24 2012
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