'Nzimande must be recalled'

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said yesterday union leaders like himself should not hold executive positions in the ANC because they would confuse workers.

His statement comes as his counterpart in the SACP, Blade Nzimande, is facing pressure from union members to resign from his cabinet position.

In his address during the opening of Cosatu's new headquarters in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, Vavi said there was nothing wrong with swelling the ranks of the ANC but that it should not include leadership positions.

"I have seen practical experience. When that happens the person gets so compromised and eventually gets so discredited that they lose every respect with their own members because nobody knows what they are talking about and who they are talking about every time they open their mouths," Vavi said.

In recent months, Cosatu members have been calling on Nzimande to relinquish his position as Minister of Higher Education and come back to lead the party on a full-time basis.

Nzimande has, however, defended his role in President Jacob Zuma's cabinet, saying the SACP was able to function without a full-time general secretary.

Last week, he said the party continued to grow its membership even though he was in cabinet.

At the same event, Zuma said his comments last week that union leaders should work towards being elected into influential positions in the ANC's NEC were not related to the party's elective conference in Mangaung.

"The point I was making was that it is a weakness for workers not to be in the ANC and [not] influence the direction of the ANC because its policies [and] its programmes should be influenced by others who are part of this broad church. And I underlined, not specifically, the national executive committee of the ANC, not just in the branch, in the region or zones, or province, but at a place where decisions are taken," he said.