Vavi silenced

Zwelinzima Vavi was last night suspended as trade union federation Cosatu’s general secretary.

The decision to place Vavi on ‘‘indefinite leave’ was taken at a heated Cosatu central executive committee meeting that lasted several hours.

The Times has established that Cosatu will institute a full inquiry into Vavi’s sexual liaison with a junior married staff member in her office.

The probe will also look into how the female staff member, who has since dropped a grievance against Vavi, came to be employed.

Sources close to Vavi said he was “devastated”.

Cosatu is expected to release a statement this morning giving further details about his suspension.

Those close to the process last night told The Times that Vavi would be suspended with full benefits pending the outcome of an internal probe.

As part of the conditions of his suspension, Vavi would not take part in any work related to the union federation and not be allowed to address or attend any events linked to the federation and its affiliates.

Senior officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the conditions of the suspension we re meant to “sniff the air” from his comeback campaign, which in recent weeks had been driven by affiliates loyal to his leadership.

One of them wa s SA Democratic Teachers Union president Thobile Ntola, whose union suspended him on Monday after he gave Vavi a platform to speak a few days after the sex scandal broke.

“The decision has nothing to do with politics but is about our internal structures that are there to guide the movement. No leader is above those rules, including the general secretary,” said a senior official.

But one of Vavi backers, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, last night cried foul, saying the central executive committee meeting was held purely to suspend Vavi.

Numsa’s general secretary, Irvin Jim, said his union did not believe the matter was handled in a constitutional manner.

“We believe everything that happened in that meeting was premeditated and that the meeting was held purely to suspend Vavi.

“It is very clear that it was not properly constituted because an agenda was not made available beforehand, as is required. Without that agenda we can not receive the necessary mandate from the workers,” Jim said.

He said he believed there were factions within Cosatu that had been gunning for Vavi for quite some time.

Jim said Numsa would first assess the situation and then plan its next step.

The union argued that Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini had taken sides against Vavi before yesterday’s contested meeting. It said Dlamini was “reckless” with Cosatu’s future.

Yesterday’s meeting comes at a time when Vavi is fighting another bitter internal inquiry after being accused of having benefited personally from the sale of the old Cosatu building in Johannesburg.

Vavi, a fierce critic of the ANC leadership under President Jacob Zuma, is the first Cosatu general secretary to be suspended since the union federation was established 28 years ago.