Devan+Pillay+says,+Shame+on+COSATU,+Letters,+Business+Day

Business Day, Johannesburg, Letters, 22 March 2006
=Shame on Cosatu=

I will shortly be representing my university at a meeting of the Global Labour University in Germany. As a former unionist and current labour researcher, I will speak with pride on the role played by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) as a champion of workers and all marginalised, downtrodden people.

In particular, I remember Cosatu encouraging women to demand equal rights to men — in the workplace and in society generally; and to demand that men look into themselves and question their own behaviour towards women.

I will reflect on the creative tension embedded in Cosatu’s support for the ruling party, yet the fact that it is bold enough to make a stand against, among other things, a mixed- messages government approach to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. And then, as I reflect on the Jacob Zuma rape trial, I will hang my head in bewilderment.

I will not be able to explain why Cosatu — my beacon of hope, my moral authority — has decided to remain silent during the trial.

When something moves Cosatu, it speaks out. It was moved last year when it felt that Zuma was being treated unfairly in relation to corruption allegations.

Is Cosatu not moved by calls for the alleged victim to be burnt? Does it not admire the brave women outside the court making a stand against woman abuse in the face of severe hostility from erstwhile comrades?

Is it not repulsed by the alleged perpetrator’s macho display of his “machine gun” power? Does it not feel shame at the way he has pounced upon her painful personal tragedies to justify his actions?

Does it not want to cry out when a former chairperson of the AIDS Council admits to having unprotected sex with a known HIV-positive woman who looked up to him as a father?

Does Cosatu still want this man to be our president?

Johannesburg**
 * Devan Pillay

327 words
 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A173462