Mar 7, 2010 12:00 AM | By Moipone Malefane
President Jacob Zuma's grip on power appears to be slipping - with disillusionment over his leadership reaching the level of his cabinet.
The Sunday Times has learnt from cabinet and national executive committee members that some ministers are showing signs of disillusionment with Zuma.
NEC members said there was a lot of unhappiness around Zuma having a child out of wedlock with football boss Irvin Khoza's daughter Sonono.
There are now fears in senior ANC and cabinet ranks about the possible impact of another scandal on the Zuma administration.
A cabinet member noted that the cabinet did not release a statement of support for the president after the revelations about his love child.
Talk of disillusionment comes as the war of words between the ANC and Cosatu took a turn for the worse this week, with allegations of a plot to unseat Zuma.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told the Sunday Times that Cosatu's provincial leaders had told the federation's central executive committee (CEC) meeting of a campaign "mooted to go for both Zuma and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe".
Although he refused to reveal the names of ANC members who wanted to remove the two leaders, Vavi said Cosatu's provincial structures "were on the ground and knew everything that was happening".
Vavi said the plan involved removing Zuma and Mantashe by way of a vote of no confidence in the two leaders when the ANC holds its national general council meeting in September.
Vavi said the plot to oust Zuma and Mantashe came to Cosatu's attention during its four-day CEC meeting in Johannesburg this week.
In what appeared to be an attempt to pre-empt the alleged plot, Cosatu addressed the matter at a press conference on Thursday.
Its affiliate, the South African Municipal Workers' Union, claimed yesterday that the "counter-revolutionaries" within the ANC, whom it did not name, planned to move a vote of no confidence in Zuma in a bid to "cause chaos" in the country.
"Those people are still within the movement, but they are in the way of what we are doing. We need to crush those people and brutally so," said the union's general secretary, Mathandeki Nhlapo.
Vavi said the federation's provincial structures had raised concerns that a campaign had taken root at a branch level to remove the two leaders.
"These groups want to piggyback on what the president has apologised for," he said.
Zuma issued an apology for the "hurt" he caused his family and the nation after the Sunday Times exposed his love child.
"These people are on the ground. In public they say we support the president, but on the ground they are working against his presidency," said Vavi.
The ANC on Friday dismissed Cosatu's claims, saying the allegations were unfounded: "These sentiments are clearly not borne out of any truth because no member or structure of the ANC has taken such a resolution or mobilised for such," said the ANC.
"The Cosatu statement is, therefore, not only misleading, but also divisive."
But as the unions publicly warned about the plot, union leaders stated that they, too, were unhappy with Zuma's leadership style and his failure to fight in their corner in the ANC and in government.
At the heart of this is Zuma's failure to intervene in the hostilities between ANC nationalists, led by the youth league, and the party's leftist allies in Cosatu and the SA Communist Party.
The youth league has made no secret of its intentions to remove Mantashe as the party's secretary-general during the party's next elective conference.
This has angered the unions, who have questioned Zuma's silence on the matter, implying that his failure to defend Mantashe meant that he had taken sides.
The National Union of Metal Workers of SA (Numsa) openly questioned Zuma's silence on the matter.
Malema wanted Mantashe replaced by the deputy minister of police, Fikile Mbalula, said Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim, adding that "the ANC is not run by tsotsis who would sit in shebeens and decide to put their friends as leaders".
The youth league on Friday criticised Cosatu's views on Zuma, saying the federation and its affiliates "continue to question the role of the ANC president and present him as a leader who has betrayed working-class struggles".
"What is worrying is that the leadership of Cosatu is doing all these questionable things in the name of ... Mantashe," it said.
Policy differences between Cosatu and Zuma also appear to be at the root of the current ruptures.
The unions have questioned how Zuma allowed finance minister Pravin Gordhan to announce a two-tier labour market while this was not an ANC policy. They have also criticised Zuma for failing - in his recent state of the nation address - to deal with their demand for the banning of labour brokers.
Yesterday, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union, Cosatu's biggest affiliate, warned it to "remain vigilant and mobilise against those elements that want to hijack the ANC for their selfish interest".
