By Ayal Belling

Cosatu’s Special National Congress this week marks the latest round in the ongoing battle for control of the federation of trade unions between its ANC-faithful Central Executive Committee and its former Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi, along with the expelled National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).

The divisive issue driving the squabbles, legal actions and expulsions of the last two years, is how to bring about radical economic transformation in South Africa. Vavi and Irvin Jim, NUMSA’s firebrand leader, have been losing the fight to align Cosatu behind an economic program to challenge the Free Market approach of the ANC, a challenge that has been made since 1993, when the first major economic plan emerged for a post-Apartheid South Africa.

Read full article here