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Zwelinzima Vavi

Cape Town — Expelled Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says Cosatu has been turned into “a toothless dog federation”, which has become the “sweetheart” of the corrupt.

He told Terry Bell in an exclusive News24Live studio interview yesterday that people think if one is “dismissed” you must go home and cry. “That is not what is happening in his case,” he said.

Yet he emphasised that “paranoid minds” think he is going for the creation of an alternative federation.

At the same time he said workers are crying out “for an independent, militant, workers’ organisation” to deal with the challenges they are facing.

In his view, however, Cosatu has been turned into “a toothless dog federation”, which has become the “sweetheart” of the corrupt.

“Workers are tired of fruitless boardroom discussions, which take them nowhere. Their main grievances include low pay, inequalities and casualisation and I have in the past expressed my support for such a campaign,” said Vavi.

“For two years we have tried for a special congress to address these issues. Instead they dismissed the biggest union with more than 300,000 members because of political differences with leadership and dismissed the general secretary Vavi without following procedure. You can’t do that and claim that you are working for unity.”

Although there has been talk of a Cosatu congress in July, Vavi said there has been no notice given of such.

“We say do not moan, but mobilise. Ask for decent work and more maternity and paternity leave, for instance. We ask for mobilisation across all the unions,” he said. — Sapa