Former Cosatu leader Zwelinzima Vavi took a swipe at the South African Communist Party‚ saying the party died in 1993 when Chris Hani was assassinated.
Vavi was addressing close to a full house atttending the Daily Dispatch dialogues at the Guild Theatre on Monday night.
Under review was Wits University’s head of sociology Devan Pillay’s book Cosatu in Crisis.
Vavi said anyone who thought there was still a communist party in South Africa was “living in dreamland”.
Asked what went wrong with the SACP, he responded: “Patronage.”
Being asked to critique the SACP and ANC was hurtful.
“Deep down I am dying a slow death because this is my movement. Sometimes I wish I could wake up with Chris Hani still around.
“One of my biggest confessions I will make is that we believed that tsotsis were communists. In the end that cost us dearly.”
Pillay said it had taken a lot of effort to establish the federation and for it to “split asunder was tragic for workers”.
He was referring to the expulsion of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) from the federation, a decision which saw several other unions including the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) championing Numsa’s reinstatement in vain.
At the heart of Cosatu’s problems was Numsa’s call for Cosatu to divorce itself from party politics, a campaign which saw the Numsa refusing to campaign for the ANC in the 2014 general elections.
At the last Cosatu congress both Numsa and Vavi were shown the door.
Pillay said the current leadership of Cosatu was “betraying” fundamental principles and the vibrant character of labour unions.
Vavi said Cosatu started to implode in 2010, a year after President Jacob Zuma took office.
“We had a president whom we presented to the workers as our good friend. At the time we said a lot of exciting things. Workers saw ourselves in him. But that turned out to be not the case, as we later realised,” said Vavi.
He was referring to Cosatu’s decision prior to the 2007 ANC elective conference to rally support for Zuma against then-president Thabo Mbeki.
Vavi said immediately after Zuma’s ascendency to power, cracks started to show in the labour federation.
He said those who were vocal about the federation “going off the rails”, including him, were persecuted and treated as “counter revolutionaries”.
Vavi said the Marikana massacre and the De Doorns farm worker strike were other game changers in the federation.
In the platinum belt, workers opted to dump the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) for Amcu because Num refused to support miners’ demands for a minimum wage of R12500.
He said workers in both instances “led themselves to victory in their struggles”, with Cosatu nowhere in sight.
“I knew things were not normal when the Marikana massacre happened.
“This was the time of the phenomenon of ‘Me first!’ or ‘It’s our time to eat’ clearly emerging. Those who questioned such, were labelled as a counter revolutionary or working for the CIA,” said Vavi. — asandan@dispatch.co.za