General secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) Zwelinzima Vavi has declined an invitation by the SACP to its national congress, presently underway in Boksburg. Vavi says he cannot forgive the party’s involvement in Cosatu’s split. The SACP invited Vavi and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) to its 14th national congress, as it eyes contesting elections independently of its ally, the ANC. This is after the party played an integral role in Vavi and Numsa’s expulsion from Cosatu at the end of 2014. Vavi and Numsa have gone on to form a new federation, Saftu, and are in the process of setting up a workers party to contest future elections. "By openly supporting the expulsion of over 340,000 metal workers [Numsa], and then to stand idly by when hundreds of other unions members within Cosatu were summarily expelled for demanding an end to corruption, financial and political accountability and transparency by their union leaderships makes us doubt t...
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