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Zwelinzima Vavi's bold message on SA's newest federation

Cape Town - The newly registered South African Federation of Trade Unions is poised to be a game changer, charges Zwelinzima Vavi.

"This is a massive achievement for us," the axed Cosatu boss told Fin24 on Friday after announcing the news the Department of Labour officially registered the new federation.

He said the country's labour landscape is set to be revitalised.

"This is a milestone in the history of the South African trade union movement and paves the way for the birth of a vibrant, independent, democratic and militant workers’ champion, which will turn the tide against exploitation, mass unemployment, poverty and inequality and take us forward to the total liberation of the working class."

Vavi, who was expelled from labour federation Cosatu in 2016, said workers needed unions which were independent of their bosses and political parties. "They better tighten their seatbelts because the train is about to take off".

READ: Vavi's new labour federation will launch in April

Vavi said no federation has ever been registered ahead of an official launch.

"This one has been registered on the strength that of the all the 30 unions meeting at the workers summit in April last year unanimously agreed that a federation must be formed and that they want to be part of such a federation."

Vavi explained that 21 unions have held their national congresses and indicated that they want to form part of the new federation.

"That is unprecedented. Usually, unions at a leadership level only come around to start a discussion. This one has the complete backing of 21 congresses of different unions. We already have 684 863 members from those 21 unions."

Big push

The new federation largely led by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, which is the biggest union in the country.

Although the launch of South African Federation of Trade Unions on 23 April is very important, Vavi noted that it is only the beginning of a very long journey.

"We want to unite South African workers behind the principle that unions must be independent, democratic, worker-controlled and relevant," he said.

"We are doing all of this step by step, in order to fill a huge vacuum that has been left by existing federations that have been paralysed and compromised because of their relationships (to businesses and political parties)".

Ultimately this leads them to being inconsistent in their approach to transformation and the challenges facing the country, said Vavi.

Swelling the ranks

"There is a growing gap that we intend on filling, which is of workers who already en mass don't see unions as relevant."

Vavi said this is indicative of the mere 24% of workers who are unionised. "Our aim is to ensure that we can use this as a base that will increase every day, week and month to ensure that we increase the number of unions to cover that 76% of workers that have already given up."   

The Federation of Unions of South Africa, along with Cosatu and Nactu, are the country’s largest federations.

Together they represent labour in Nedlac, which – as the consensus-seeking body comprising government, business, labour and civil society – is an important lever to directly influence policy and legislation.

The Confederation of South African Workers' Unions is the fourth trade union federation in the country.

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