Zwelinzima Vavi

Sensing the political wind Zwelinzima Vavi and Willie Madisha senior officials of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) have pulled back from vying for senior positions in the party...

For three years trades union leader Zwelinzima Vavi has marched his troops to the top of the hill then marched them down again...

Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said: 'We are sending a warning that nobody should be tempted to settle a score of a purely political and democratic nature within the structures of the ANC and the Alliance by involving the might of the state' adding that the government's treatment of the allegations could turn South Africa into a 'banana republic' (for once potential investors may agree with him)...

Another SACP member Cosatu's usually hard-line General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi recently pledged his federation's constructive participation in the newly created Millennium Labour Council (MLC) which is meant to overcome blockages in negotiations between labour business and government...

Zwelinzima Vavi a militant who has been Cosatu's Acting General Secretary since Mbhazima Shilowa left for full-time ANC work and the premiership of Gauteng Province was unopposed as Shilowa's formal successor...

He may be replaced as Cosatu's General Secretary by Zwelinzima Vavi an anti-Mbeki member of the SACP Politbureau although moderates in Cosatu may put forward their own candidate...

Key critics of Mbeki's strategy are Blade Nzimande an academic who recently defeated Mbeki loyalist Charles Nqakula in the contest for the general secretaryship of the SACP; Jeremy Cronin SACP Deputy General Secretary (a former political prisoner academic and poet) and Zwelinzima Vavi Deputy General Secretary of Cosatu...