3 years ago
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The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), which has been marred by leadership infighting all year, will lobby other police organisations to compensate for the withdrawal of the 82 000-member strong South African Police Union (Sapu).
Sapu, the second largest police union and one of Saftu’s founding members, took the decision to “divorce” Saftu at Sapu’s recent national congress, which ended on Friday, 2 December.
Sapu was also the biggest public service union in Saftu, and its second largest after the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), which has more than 300 000 members.
Saftu has been embroiled in public leadership skirmishes between its secretary general, Zwelinzima Vavi, and Numsa secretary general Irvin Jim, both of whom were once close allies during their time in labour federation Cosatu.
The constant fighting came to a head in May when Vavi was narrowly re-elected with an 89-vote winning margin at Saftu’s national congress, defeating Moses Mautsoe, who was the candidate backed by Numsa and Jim.
Khaya Koko is a journalist with a penchant for reading through legal documents braving the ravages of cold court benches to expose the crooked. He writes about social justice and human-interest stories. Most importantly, he is a card-carrying member of the Mighty Orlando Pirates.
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