COSATU President Losi appeals for backing, as NEHAWU hits out at federation’s ‘flip-flopping’

By Johnathan Paoli

Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) President Zingiswa Losi has appealed to the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) to remain a pillar of the federation, while the union’s own leadership used its national congress to sharply criticise what it described as COSATU’s recent ideological “flip-flopping” and drift from its revolutionary traditions.

The contrasting messages emerged on the second day of NEHAWU’s 13th National Congress in Boksburg, where Losi stressed that COSATU’s strength depended on its largest affiliates, while General Secretary Zola Saphetha’s political report accused elements within the federation of diluting its Marxist-Leninist orientation and succumbing to political patronage.

Addressing delegates, Losi described NEHAWU as indispensable to the federation’s future.

“We are now heading to our COSATU National Congress in September. We need NEHAWU to continue to be a source of revolutionary ideas and a defender of COSATU and workers’ unity,” she said.