Cape Town - Cosatu general secretary
Zwelinzima Vavi on Sunday said his movement would not blame the
government for the Marikana shooting without knowing the full facts
that led to the death of 34 miners.
“We have refused to apportion blame
at this moment, to seek to score cheap political points and refused
to drive sentiment against the government or anyone without knowing
the full facts.”
Without naming Julius Malema, Vavi
appeared to distance Cosatu from the expelled ANC Youth League
president's calls for President Jacob Zuma to resign over the August
16 bloodbath at Lonmin's platinum mine in North West.
“We call on all those who have rushed
to Marikana, to desist from their opportunism and to wait for the
results of the commission of inquiry appointed by the president,”
he told delegates at Cosatu's Western Cape provincial congress.
The commission, headed by retired judge
Ian Farlam, is expected to deliver its report in five months.
Vavi however launched an emotional
critique of working conditions in the country's mines, recalling his
own background as a miner sacked after going on strike, and said
workers must continue to fight for higher wages.
“An injury to one is an injury to
all... Our call to our workers is that they should be united in
battle against the mining barons who continue to exploit our labour
and our country's mineral wealth.”
He said the violence in the platinum
belt had claimed lives since February and accused break-away unions
and mining companies of trying to break the dominance of the National
Union of Mineworkers.
“We have no doubt that there is an
orchestrated political attack from the employers, from right-wing
organisations ... as well as from wedge-drivers.”
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