Shilowa 'whisky-drinking egotist'

2008-10-15 15:58

Johannesburg - The Congress of SA Trade Unions turned on its former general secretary Mbhazima Shilowa calling him a whisky-drinking egotist after he announced his resignation from its alliance partner, the ANC.

"His biggest problem has always been his elastic ambitions and a huge ego.

"For him it has always been about - what is in it for me?" said a statement released after he announced his intention to form a national convention which could lead to a new opposition party.

"He changed from being a darling of workers to a member of expensive, elitist, whisky-drinking and cigar-smoking clubs," said Cosatu of the man who helped form the alliance between the union federation, the ruling party and the SA Communist Party, of which he was a central committee member.

Shilowa resigned from the ANC on Tuesday and, with suspended former ANC chair Mosiuoa Lekota, plans to hold a national convention on November 2, after consulting with various sectors on how to improve the country.

'Bad loser'

Cosatu said Shilowa was just a "bad loser" for not being elected onto the ANC's National Executive Committee after lobbying for the re-election of former president Thabo Mbeki as party head.

His calls on Tuesday for a president directly elected by the people, and the full disclosure of political funding for parties had been made before by Cosatu, but they were not supported by him when he was a leader in the ANC, it said.

"Shilowa and his ilk will not succeed. Parties can only be built on the foundation of principles and not on naked opportunism and new-found elitism!"

DA support

The opposition Democratic Alliance said it would support any initiative to help strengthen constitutional democracy.

"We are committed to realigning politics to challenge the ANC for power, prevent the slide into a one-party state, and allow our vision of an open-opportunity society for all to prevail over the ANC's vision of a closed, crony society."

Shilowa predicted that he would be vilified after his decision and, playing on ANC president Jacob Zuma's warning that it would be cold for people who left the party, said: "This being sunny Africa I can say without any fear that most will find there is a lot of sunshine out there".

He would first help establish a preparatory committee comprised of "prominent individuals" and they would tour the country to consult sectors of society.

Just 'one man and a cellphone'

He encouraged people to bring their views to the convention.

"This includes those who believe that the convention should also pronounce a platform for a new political party," he said.

Quipping that for now he was just "one man and a cellphone", he said he planned to hold the first of these planned countrywide pre-convention discussions in his home village, Olifantshoek, in Limpopo on Friday.

Lekota said last week he was concerned that the ANC was deviating from the principles of the Freedom Charter in the way it had lobbied against the prosecution of its president, Jacob Zuma, for corruption charges.

These charges were set aside by the Pietermaritzburg High Court in September and Mbeki was forced to resign, a move that Lekota and Shilowa publicly questioned and led to Shilowa's resignation as Gauteng premier.

ANC welcomed resignation

The ANC welcomed his resignation, calling his behaviour "unacceptable and untenable".

It is expected to make a "radical" decision concerning Lekota and Mluleki George, who had accompanied him to a news conference, at a meeting on his future in the party on Wednesday.

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, who was himself expelled in a party dispute, said he was appalled by this threat, saying it created the environment for violence and hostility, while the SA Students Congress called on its members to refuse to be recruited by Lekota "and his crew".

Questioned on the political allegiance of his businesswoman wife, Wendy Luhabe, Shilowa replied: "I don't know that my wife will do.

"She is an independent woman, I make my decisions, she must be able to make her decisions."

- SAPA