Zwelinzima Vavi

Zwelinzima Vavi
Born	20 December 1962 (1962-12-20) (age 54) Hanover, Northern Cape
Occupation	Trade union leader

Zwelinzima Vavi (born 20 December 1962) is the former General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and Vice-Chairperson of the Millennium Labour Council.

Vavi was born on a farm in Hanover, Northern Cape, with a mineworker father, four brothers and seven sisters. Until he was baptised, he did not know the date of his birthday. He was a child labourer, looking for work among neighbouring farms.

In 1987 Vavi worked in a gold-mining territory of Klerksdorp and Orkney. He was a uranium plant clerk at Vaal Reefs mine, and joined the National Union of Mineworkers as an organizer. He was fired from AngloGold in 1987 following a massive miners' strike which crippled the Chamber of Mines. He then joined COSATU as a volunteer.

In 1988, he became COSATU's regional secretary for the Western Transvaal. In 1992 he took up the position of National Organizing Secretary. He served as COSATU's Deputy General Secretary from 1993 to 1999.

Vavi took centre stage in the four-month negotiation that preceded the 1997 Jobs Summit. He served on the International Labour Organisation's commission on globalisation.

In 1999 he succeeded Mbhazima Shilowa (formerly the Gauteng Premier, and later one of the leaders of COPE) as general secretary of COSATU.

He addressed the 27 June 2002 XIV International AIDS Conference where he pushed mass education and prevention campaigns.

Vavi has spoken out against the expulsion of NUMSA, the metalworkers union, which used to be the largest union in the COSATU federation. This is one of the major factors contributing to Vavi's expulsion from COSATU. On 30 March 2015 the Central Executive Committee (CEC) voted to expel Vavi. The vote was 31-1 in favour of expelling Vavi.

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