National
Vavi says he is ready to fight to reclaim Cosatu─── 08:23 Fri, 10 Apr 2015
Cape Town – Axed Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Thursday night said he remained ready to fight to reunite the fractured labour federation.
“We need to ask:”Can we win Cosatu back?” Vavi told some 300 members of affiliated unions seen as sympathetic to him and the ousted National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) at a meeting in Salt River.
Vavi gave his audience, the first public gathering of Cosatu members he has addressed since his sacking last month, until late April to canvass workers on whether they believed the rift in the movement could be mended or wanted to form a rival organisation.
“Do we continue to mobilise you to reclaim the federation?” he asked.
“Do you believe that we can still win it back and make it an instrument in the hands of workers, an independent instrument, a fighting organisation?
“Can we win it back or should we now begin to ask serious questions about alternatives? That is what we want you to ask, to go back and debate. Don’t jump into easy conclusions, these are very difficult questions.”
Speculation has been rife that Vavi would form a new federation with Numsa following his ousting, which he described as a sanction for his opposition to the expulsion of Numsa and his outspoken criticism of corruption in government.
He said he was told by his foes within Cosatu that he would be allowed to remain in the position he held for 16 years if he replaced the latter with ”telling a good story”, a reference to the ANC’s slogan in last year’s national elections.
“It is so easy to destroy what you did not build. I know what it took to build this union,” he added.
The meeting was not attended by Western Cape Cosatu secretary Tony Ehrenreich, a longtime ally of Vavi.
