Cosatu won’t recoup a cent from Fawu, says Vavi

Zwelinzima Vavi says Cosatu can forget about recouping the more than R5 million it is owed by the Food and Allied Workers Union.

Johannesburg - Cosatu can forget about recouping the more than R5 million it is owed by its former affiliate, the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu), says Zwelinzima Vavi, the convener of a new labour federation.

Vavi, who was shown the door by Cosatu last year, said Fawu’s historical congress last week, which saw the union voting to leave the federation, proved even more that a new union body was needed.

He was addressing journalists on Thursday as the convener of the steering committee of unions which are involved in forming the new federation, which is set to be launched by next year.

“They must go and jump and they will not get a single cent, they must go and deal with crisis that they dismissed hundreds of thousands of workers because they didn’t agree with their political stance,” said Vavi, referring to Cosatu’s dismissal on the National Union of Metalworkers of SA.

Vavi, who was wearing a Fawu T-shirt, looked pleased as he welcomed the union “home” to join about 35 unions in launching the federation.

Fawu deputy president Raymond Mnguni admitted that the union owed Cosatu the money, but said the federation should not apply double standards on its demands for levies from unions when a number of its unions were just as guilty.

“We don’t say that we don’t owe Cosatu, but some of those issues that they are raising with regards to the R5 million is with regards to political levies. And not all unions with Cosatu were paying those levies. The congress was very clear, that you walk out of that Cosatu and you go and help form the new federation,” said Mnguni.

On the matter of Cosatu claiming that Fawu had purged its members from KwaZulu-Natal who did not participate in the congress, Vavi and Mnguni strongly denied this. They said that the group had failed to reach consensus on various issues before the congress.

“The allegation that Fawu has purged KZN members is unfounded. The constitution imposed that every branch regional structure must hold a congress and have a mandate from their members. Every person who goes to that congress is representing a consistency. And the case of KZN they are divided, they couldn’t agree and were given an opportunity three times,” said Vavi.

Labour Bureau