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There is just the faintest breeze of renewal and democracy wafting through the bureaucratic corridors of Cosatu and disturbing the cobwebs of dogma that have tangled up due process in the country’s largest labour federation.
It comes in the form of the election of David Sipunzi as general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
Sipunzi has clearly read and understood Cosatu’s constitution, and seems prepared to act. This document provides a recipe for democratic house-cleaning and, if constantly applied, should ensure the unity in diversity and membership control that is the essence of democracy.
But whether Sipunzi will be able to apply the recipe is another matter – especially since Cosatu is still under the control of a bureaucratic cabal wedded to the dogma that has caused the current crisis.
This dogma has its origins in the SA Communist Party (SACP). It sees the ANC as the essential vehicle in which to achieve an ill-defined socialism via a national democratic revolution, and requires party members to take control of all the leading positions in society – the trade unions being an essential part of this.
But now the SACP is split. Both expelled Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and his counterpart in the also-expelled National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) were, until recently, members of the SACP. Karl Cloete, deputy general secretary of Numsa, was also formerly an extremely loyal Western Cape provincial secretary of that party.
It is this that makes Sipunzi’s victory so important, particularly because of some of the statements he made in the immediate wake of his victory.
He noted that he kept being asked by NUM members: “When is Vavi coming back?” And he went on to call for the expulsion of Vavi and Numsa to be reviewed. According to the Cosatu constitution, this is a process that must be followed and continues to be ignored.
Sipunzi also stressed: “Cosatu members don’t have to support the ANC-led tripartite alliance to remain in the fold of the federation.”
Once again, this is in line with the federation’s constitution. And, once again, is resisted by the believers in a national democratic revolution on the road to a working class nirvana.
However, NUM’s new general secretary defeated the long-serving Frans Baleni, a central committee member of the SACP, by just nine votes, an indication that the union is split down the middle. Similar divisions probably exist in a number of other Cosatu affiliates currently aligned with the controlling Cosatu faction, which is headed by president S’dumo Dlamini, who is also a central committee member of the SACP.
Such is the substance of the turmoil within Cosatu. However, form continues to be followed, with messages of solidarity and congratulation being sent from various unions allied to the Cosatu leadership and from the SACP. The exception was Dlamini, who noted that Sipunzi’s comments were “uncalled for and unfortunate”.
Dlamini has consistently opposed the right of Numsa and Vavi to attend, and put their cases to a special national congress scheduled for next month. It was for this reason that Numsa attempted to gain access to the congress by making an urgent application to the high court.
But the judge played Pontius Pilate and, in effect, washed his hands of the matter by declaring that it was not urgent. So Numsa’s constitutional right to be heard at – and, therefore, to attend – the special national congress was not ruled on.
These developments have all the ingredients of a farce, but they do seem to indicate that the final episode in this messy saga is dawning.
The hope within the majority of the Cosatu leadership appears to be that Numsa and Vavi will finally walk away and form another federation, taking with them dissident elements within the loyalist faction.
This could leave Cosatu with a rump of membership largely from the public sector. Not an optimistic outcome
