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Zwelinzima Vavi. Picture: Elizabeth Sejake
Workers’ issues had been sidelined because people were preoccupied
with political shenanigans, former Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said
today.
Vavi was talking to reporters in Johannesburg in his capacity as
the Workers Summit steering committee’s convener.
The Workers Summit, a breakaway from the Congress of South African
Trade Unions, was hoping to launch a new trade union federation in the next
three to four months.
“It is about Zuma, Guptas, court, appeal, suspended, appeal,
disciplinary action, follow-up questions to the minister of finance. That’s what
the news in South Africa is today; it’s the political crisis,” said Vavi.
Workers’ issues and bigger problems such as unemployment,
inequality and poverty had fallen off the agenda, he said.
No time could be wasted on other matters because the jobs crisis
was a priority. These problems could not be solved under the current
circumstances because the government had been “captured”, Vavi said.
This was why the Workers Summit was forming a new trade union
federation.
About 3 000 delegates, representing more than 40 trade unions, were
expected to meet on April 30 for a national summit to discuss this.
Vavi said the aim of the new federation was not to create jobs, but to pressure the government to implement policies, such as the industrial policy action plan. The problem was not with the plan, but with the political will to drive it, he said.
– News24
