Vavi lays into “gangster” Zuma: Creating bogus trade union WAU last straw.

Labour leader Zwelinzima Vavi is taking the ANC Government’s bogus trade union very personally. As he articulates in the fiery contribution below, he regards it as the ultimate betrayal of workers – especially as President Jacob Zuma and his spooks instigated the now defunct Workers Association Union (WAU) as an antidote to militant AMCU shortly after striking workers were mowed down by police at Marikana. The bombshell of Zuma’s involvement in the creation of WAU exploded when the pawns used by Zuma and the secret service spilled the beans in court. They are suing SA’s President and his cohorts for more than R100m in debt which the union has accumulated after spending millions more that it received via taxpayers. Vavi likens the episode to the supposedly unsinkable Titanic – describing it as the ANC hitting “a massive democratic iceberg in the form of the workers movement.” Could this be the last straw for a deeply complicit President. Vavi certainly believes it is. – Alec Hogg    

By Zwelinzima Vavi*

The revelations emerging from court papers that are now in the public domain, that claim that President Jacob Zuma, actively conspired with Secret Service agencies to establish a rival trade union to AMCU in the platinum belt should be seen as the last straw. This took place AFTER the Marikana massacre, and before the Farlam Commission reported. Frankly, if this is true, we have a President who has not just lost the plot, but who has been busy trying to create them!

For a President to deliberately call together the equivalent of trade union mercenaries and sections of what must be considered probably the most sensitive elements of the state apparatus beggars belief. To wilfully plot and then implement moves deliberately designed to create division amongst workers are the actions of persons who not only undermine their oath of office, but who also undermine South African labour law, and the international conventions it has endorsed on the Freedom of Association and many other matters.

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It is clear that there were attempts to undermine AMCU, and no expense was spared in doing so. The fact that the money promised to the Trade Union Mercenaries dried up and caused the brand new Workers Association Union to then flounder, does not detract from the fact that No 1 was behaving not like an elected President, but like a gangster, using whatever means at his disposal to promote a ‘sweetheart’ union at the expense of the tax payer, including miners in platinum.

Questions That Must Be Answered!

All of this begs a number of questions that must be answered :

1                Who else was aware of this dastardly plan, and what was their role in its implementation? In particular, was the Deputy President aware of such a plan? Given his private interests in platinum, and his role in Lonmin, will he now publicly condemn and disassociate himself from the plan?

2                Who ensured that the Workers Association Union was registered and why was the spouse of legal advisor to Zuma listed as the contact during registration?

3                Who in the security cluster knew about this, and who gave them permission to use substantial secret state resources to undermine a legal, democratic, registered trade union? What has the Minister of Finance got to say about this expenditure?

4                What was the role of the Minister of Labour and her officials in the Department, given that many of the Unions associated with the New Federation that will be launched in March 2017 have experienced countless delays and bureaucratic hurdles to secure registration.

5                Did the NUM and COSATU know of this attempt to split AMCU, and how will they explain this to their members, given the undermining of labour laws and trade union principles. Will both NUM and COSATU unconditionally condemn these actions more befitting a dictatorship?

6                To what extent has this been happening before the Trade Union Mercenaries were dumped, and what of the creation of LIMUSA and other formations to undermine existing democratic unions? What other attempts have been made to undermine democratic worker organisation?

This Is An Attack on Each and Every Worker!

These questions must be answered by the Presidency in an open court. We of the new independent and democratic workers federation will be watching this case very closely indeed and we call upon all workers, from all federations, and all traditions to do likewise. If it is revealed that the Presidency deliberately undermined labour law and international conventions, we will pursue the matter to its logical conclusion, including through the ILO and domestic courts, and we expect the entire workers movement to work alongside us to do this. There is no room for factional interests or a sectarian response. This is an attack on the organisations of the entire working class.

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If nothing else, this whole episode blows a gigantic hole in the myth that the ANC Government is on the side of the poor and the working class. It shows that at the centre of government is a heartless disregard for human life. Coming so soon after the Marikana massacre, this is nothing short of an attempt to stir up warfare within the workers movement.

We are witnessing another shameful episode in the degeneration of a Presidency and a Government that has completely lost touch with the people it is supposed to represent. The ANC Government is like the Titanic, and it has just hit a massive democratic iceberg in the form of the workers movement. Surely the Secret Service Agencies working for Zuma must know that an iceberg reveals only a fraction of itself above water, there is much more hidden from view. The Titanic boasted that it was unsinkable. We dare the ANC Government to make the same claim!

• Zwelinzima Vavi, former head of Cosatu, is the convenor if the Steering Committee for New Federation.