Solidariteit Blog

JOHANNESBURG June 1 Sapa
ANC MUM ON VAVI

The ANC would not be drawn on Tuesday on whether it had
discussed charging Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi over
comments on Cabinet ministers.
“Surely, do you expect us to come out of the bedroom and say
what we had to say,” said ANC chairwoman Baleka Mbete told
reporters in Johannesburg.
“It’s not fair.”
She was asked about a reported discussion on the subject at a
National Working Committee (NWC) meeting.
Mbete said it was not correct for the media to “harass” the ANC
to pronounce on things it was not ready to discuss.
Adding to this, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said: “We
are not going to debate something that is in the NWC … once a
decision is taken by the NWC we call press briefings.”
He said the party generally reported once decisions were made,
and not while discussions were still underway.
They were speaking at a “media interaction programme” in
Rivonia.
Deputy secretary general Thandi Modise ended with discussion
with: “The ANC does not wish to comment on the matter of Vavi.”
The Congress of SA Trade Unions said it would stand by Vavi if
the ANC brought disciplinary charges against him.
“We can’t confirm it, we only know what we have read in this
morning’s Star,” said Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven.
He said the union federation was shocked by the report, adding
there was no basis for the complaint that Vavi publicly accused ANC
ministers of corruption.
The report, which did not name sources, said a discussion took
place on Monday at an NWC meeting.
One of the sources said that the move to charge Vavi was part of
the ANC Youth League’s ploy to divert attention from its president
Julius Malema’s disciplinary charges.
Some of Malema’s supporters were reportedly hoping to force the
NWC to overturn his two year suspended sentence.
Last Thursday, Vavi accused President Jacob Zuma of not taking
action against corrupt ministers, specifically mentioning Minister
of Co-operative Governance Sicelo Shiceka and Communications
Minister Siphiwe Nyanda.
Vavi said reports that Shiceka had lied in his CV and the
conduct of Nyanda, who spent R500,000 on hotels in Cape Town,
should be probed.
Vavi was an ordinary member of the ANC.
Before the corruption charges were dropped against Zuma, the
president of the ANC, Vavi was one of his most vociferous
supporters.
Craven said Cosatu had not been informed, either verbally or in
writing, of the possibility of charges against Vavi.
But, he said that when Vavi speaks he speaks for the entire
federation, and so there is “no way he can be charged as an
individual for what the whole organisation has said”.
“Cosatu is an independent organisation in alignment with the ANC
and has every right to express its views.”