Cosatu processes must be followed: Nxesi

"We don't want to hear that there are splits [in Cosatu], we are begging you, as the communist party," he said at the SA Democratic Teachers' Union national general council in Kempton Park.

   

"Even when comrades are found guilty of charges we require that they maintain discipline... Whenever there are due processes, we request people to observe the internal processes."

   

In August, Cosatu put its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on special leave pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing after he admitted to having an affair with a colleague.

   

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA has brought a high court application to have the suspension overturned. The union has also reportedly threatened to break away from the Congress of SA Trade Unions.

   

Nxesi criticised unions and members that wanted to break away.

   

"It is opportunistic and completely unacceptable when we hear some comrades who are threatening to break away from the union and form splinter groups for their own vested gains," he said.

   

Nxesi, who is also the public works minister, said he previously mentioned "to the displeasure of some" that South Africa could learn something from Zimbabwe's land reform process.

   

"Essentially it is about breaking down large scale farms and promoting intensive small scale farming," he said.

   

"This is not a call for illegal land grabs. In South Africa we have a Constitution which recognises... the process of land distribution."

    

-Sapa