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Saftu’s coming to the party

The incumbent labour constituency at Nedlac managed to block new union federation Saftu from joining the body last year – but the excuse it used will fall away in April.

Saftu mostly comprises two major unions – Numsa and Fawu – and has vowed to shake things up at Nedlac once it gets in.

Even though Saftu is the second-largest labour federation in the country, Nedlac’s rules permit the founding union federations Cosatu, Fedusa and Nactu to set the rules for admission.

Saftu is larger than Fedusa and Nactu combined.

Shortly before the well-publicised launch of Saftu in April last year, the three incumbent federations changed the Nedlac rules, saying a federation had to exist for two years before Nedlac would consider whether it could become a member. This excluded Saftu, but the exclusion will only last for another seven months.

However, nothing stops the incumbents from simply inventing another arbitrary rule to block it, Saftu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi conceded this week.

A previous attempt by a new union federation to get into Nedlac was also blocked by an arbitrary new rule. The federation was Consawu and the rule that got adopted shortly before it tried to join Nedlac was that it needed a minimum membership of 300 000 – its membership was about 226 000. This rule couldn’t stop Saftu, which has almost 700 000 members.

Last year, Saftu had to use a Promotion of Access to Information Act request to get Nedlac to reveal when the two-year rule was adopted. It ultimately turned out to have been developed by Cosatu, Fedusa and Nactu in January last year – just before Saftu launched – and, despite not being ratified by the Nedlac council until October, was nevertheless used to deny Saftu’s application.

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