Vavi won't appeal expulsion
Zwelinzima Vavi will not appeal his expulsion from the Congress of South African Trade Unions as general secretary unless it holds what he calls a legitimate congress.
"Yes [I will not appeal] unless there is a legitimate congress organised that will involve all those that have been purged," he told News24 on Wednesday.
"I'm not going to go to court, I'm not going to the CCMA... because I don't want to go back into today's Cosatu. In any case I will be dismissed again for something else."
Vavi was expelled from Cosatu at the end of March following his boycott of the trade union federation's meetings.
This was in solidarity with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), which was expelled from Cosatu in November last year for resolutions taken at its special congress in 2013. The resolutions included not supporting the ANC in the general elections.
Numsa and Cosatu had been at loggerheads since the federation suspended Vavi for among other things having an affair with a junior employee.
WON'T GO BACK
Vavi on Wednesday said he did not want to be part of a trade union federation which seemed to accept wide spread corruption.
"If we have to go back to today's Cosatu, we will call a swimming pool a fire pool and we will not raise an issue about the state of corruption, we will not adopt a campaign for economic transformation, we will not take up the campaign that leaders go back to basics," he told News24.
"We will not do any of the things that last [Cosatu] congress said we must do. What's the point of going back there?"
Vavi said going back to Cosatu now would mean compromising his integrity.
"I've built it for decades and I don't want it compromised because I just want to hold a position... in an organisation that has been domesticated, hollowed-out and branded so that it can no longer hold the leadership of the country to account..."
NEW UNION RUMOURS
Vavi has been travelling around the country since his expulsion speaking to workers.
There is speculation that he and Numsa are looking to form a new trade union federation in competition to Cosatu.
Vavi said he was enjoying the freedom to go out and talk about the issues he had been stopped from talking about.
He could speak freely now without worrying that he would be taken to task over it.
"I speak out against any matter. I am enjoying the freedom."
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation