The Congress of SA Trade Unions is hoping to clean up shop during its national congress next week.
On its agenda, among others, is confronting and dealing with the lack of unity within the federation and its affiliates and the "weak state" of the alliance between itself and the ANC and the SA Communist Party.
"The year 2015 - and the last five years in general – has tested the strength of the federation to the limit," acting general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
"We were forced to stretch and redirect both the financial resources and the focus of the federation to defend it from attacks from within. We had to deal with court challenges and public assaults on the leadership and unity of the federation."
In the past year Cosatu has expelled its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and its biggest affiliate the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa).
The trade union federation has been preoccupied with infighting and a division between support for Vavi and president Sdumo Dlamini.
A number of Cosatu unions are in disarray and face financial woes. There has been infighting over jostling for leadership positions and corruption in some unions.
However, Ntshalintshali said on Wednesday that Cosatu is moving "out of the dark period of imposed disunity and manufactured divisions" into a positive era.
"We have the clarity of thought; the gravitas of vision to acknowledge that unity will not be an event or an overnight process.
"It will be achieved only by the federation's dedication to the cause of the total emancipation of workers from the shackles of capitalist exploitation," he said.
News24
Cosatu wants to clean house
On its agenda, among others, is confronting and dealing with the lack of unity within the federation and its affiliates and the "weak state" of the alliance between itself and the ANC and the SA Communist Party.
"The year 2015 - and the last five years in general – has tested the strength of the federation to the limit," acting general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
"We were forced to stretch and redirect both the financial resources and the focus of the federation to defend it from attacks from within. We had to deal with court challenges and public assaults on the leadership and unity of the federation."
In the past year Cosatu has expelled its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and its biggest affiliate the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa).
The trade union federation has been preoccupied with infighting and a division between support for Vavi and president Sdumo Dlamini.
A number of Cosatu unions are in disarray and face financial woes. There has been infighting over jostling for leadership positions and corruption in some unions.
However, Ntshalintshali said on Wednesday that Cosatu is moving "out of the dark period of imposed disunity and manufactured divisions" into a positive era.
"We have the clarity of thought; the gravitas of vision to acknowledge that unity will not be an event or an overnight process.
"It will be achieved only by the federation's dedication to the cause of the total emancipation of workers from the shackles of capitalist exploitation," he said.
News24
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