LETTER FROM MT FRERE: Zukile Majova contends that President Cyril Ramaphosa needs an ally like Zwelinzima Vavi to go after the looters.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and South Africans intent on fighting corruption in government and the private sector should celebrate the re-election of Zwelinzima Vavi as General Secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions.
In fact, Ramaphosa should welcome any partners in the fight against corruption even if such partners come from outside the ruling ANC.
Vavi is one such powerful voice in the fight against corruption and looting of state resources.
His fight against corruption in the ANC government during the Jacob Zuma years made him unpopular with his comrades.
Although he brought Zuma to power during his days as Cosatu boss, he was bold enough to change course and oppose the Zuma regime when it became clear it was set to bankrupt the state and loot public entities.
At the height of the fall out with Zuma and the Zuma faction in the ANC, Vavi said that with Zuma at the helm “we are heading rapidly in the direction of a full-blown predator state in which a powerful corrupt and demagogic elite of political hyenas increasingly controls the state as a vehicle of (wealth) accumulation.”
The re-elected Saftu boss also took an interesting decision by refusing to align Saftu with any political organisation.
The other faction of Saftu led by Numsa secretary Irvin Jim wanted the union to be aligned with a political party the same way Cosatu is aligned to the ruling party.
The independent umbrella of 21 unions with over 700 000 members is the second biggest labour federation in South Africa after Cosatu.
And this is the kind of force Ramaphosa is going to need in his quest to prosecute looters.
So far, his biggest opposition has been coming from his comrades in the ANC with their support of Zuma and suspended ANC secretary Ace Magashule who has been implicated in the R250 million asbestos scandal.
