Cape Town - A news article on Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi's absence from the ANC's 99th anniversary celebrations was "deliberately designed" to "manufacture" schisms that do not exist, the union federation said on Monday.
"For example it makes claims that the Cosatu general secretary said that President Jacob Zuma is presiding over a predatory elite," the Congress of SA Trade Unions said in a statement. It challenged the Mail & Guardian to produce evidence that Vavi had said this.
"Unless the Mail & Guardian issues a clear apology to the GS and Cosatu we will be left with no option but to report the paper to the Ombudsman."
According to the article, published in the Mail & Guardian on January 14, relations between Vavi and top ANC leaders, including Zuma and ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe, appeared to have hit a new low, as suggested by Vavi's absence from the ANC's January 8 celebrations in Polokwane.
"His no-show at the all-important annual party event, at which Zuma unveiled the ANC's plans for the year, raised eyebrows in the alliance with some leaders reading it as a sign of deepening tension between him and the ANC leadership," the article read.
It said that Zuma was said to have "taken offence" at Vavi's widely publicised remarks that Zuma was presiding over a "predatory" state plagued by a paralysis of leadership and that ANC leaders were "political hyenas".
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/Cosatu-slams-news-article-about-Vavi-20110117
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