Vavi gets tough on campaigners

The ANC should deal decisively with members who lobby for the ruling party's top posts, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said in Durban yesterday.

"We are saying deal with the fellows who start the [contestation] debate for the [ANC's national] conference, which is far away," he told a shop stewards' council.

It was reported recently that the ANC Youth League had campaigned for its former president Fikile Mbalula to replace incumbent ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe in 2012.

Without mentioning the youth league, Vavi said there were people who thought they could launch an election campaign during the ANC's national general council meeting in Durban last month. "They left with broken hearts because their attempts to strengthen political paralysis failed," he said.

Early leadership contestation would shift focus away from the party's priorities, which included improving education and health care and fighting poverty.

The national general council resolution forbade lobbying for leadership positions and ANC president Jacob Zuma told the meeting that his party would deal decisively with ill-disciplined members.

Vavi said he did not understand why people talked of replacing certain leaders before their performance had been assessed.

"The national general council resolved that candidates be assessed in relation to what contribution they will make, instead of representing a generation."

Youth league leader Julius Malema, who was recently found guilty of bringing the ANC into disrepute with certain public statements, urged the ruling party to take action against Vavi over his remarks.

Vavi told an affiliate gathering on Monday that should "tenderpreneurs" make corruption acceptable in society, the country would slip into a "predator state" controlled by "political hyenas".

According to the ANC disciplinary committee ruling, Malema could find his membership suspended if he said anything during the next two years that could bring the party into disrepute.