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Who let Juju speak at Cosatu march?

GIVE ME THE MIC: Julius Malema makes his way through the crowd to address the crowd protesting through the streets of Johannesburg last week PHOTO: HALDEN KROG
GIVE ME THE MIC: Julius Malema makes his way through the crowd to address the crowd protesting through the streets of Johannesburg last week PHOTO: HALDEN KROG

LEADERS of the Congress of SA Trade Unions in Gauteng could be in trouble with their national office for allowing expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema to speak during last week's march.

Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini singled out Malema in an interview with The Sunday Times, saying the youth leader should not have been allowed to speak during the protest.

Leaders of the SA Communist Party (SACP), the Young Communist League, SA National Civics Organisation, and the SA Students Congress were allowed to address the protesters together with Malema during the march organised by the federation last Wednesday.

Dlamini told the newspaper that Malema should not have been allowed to address the crowd because he was still fighting his expulsion from the ANC.

Dlamini said Cosatu would hold a meeting to establish how it had happened that Malema spoke.

But Cosatu provincial chairman Phutas Tseki said yesterday that workers had become restless when other speakers other than Malema took to the podium.

"They disrupted other speakers and demanded that Malema address them. It became difficult to maintain order by ignoring their demand. They made it clear that they wanted Malema to address them," Tseki said.

Some of the protesters made their first demand that Malema should address them when they converged on the Department of Labour offices in Braamfontein. They sang songs in praise of Malemas as they marched to the office of premier Nomvula Mokonyane.

Mokonyane was addressing the crowd that she would discuss their demands with the leadership of Cosatu, when part of the crowd interrupted her and demanded that Malema should address them instead.

Dlamini, who is alleged to be part of a faction within the federation that supports a second term for President Jacob Zuma, took part in another leg of the march in KwaZulu Natal.

He was joined in KwaZulu-Natal by SACP general-secretary and Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande, who is also believed to be supporting Zuma for another term.

Cosatu general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who is said to be opposed to Zuma's second term, shared the stage with Malema. The youth leader was expelled by the ANC for bringing the party into disrepute.

There is speculation that Vavi would emerge as the face of a faction opposed to Zuma's second term in the event that Malema loses his appeal.

Tseki denied that he had contributed to the frenzy by repeatedly telling the crowd that Malema was part of the march.

Last month during a shop stewards meeting in Soweto, Tseki condemned the wild celebrations of Malema's expulsion in Seshego, where T-shirts bearing the youth league president's face were burned. The anti-Malema mob also carried a coffin, which supposedly signalled his political "death".

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