Johannesburg — THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) warned yesterday that if the African National Congress (ANC) proceeded with disciplinary action against Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi the move could trigger the end of the tripartite alliance.

In its strongest criticism yet of the ANC led by President Jacob Zuma, Cosatu averred that certain ANC leaders who viewed Mr Vavi as a potential threat in the party's leadership race wanted to malign him ahead of the ANC's elective conference in 2012. This had prompted the attempt to discipline him.

The planned action against Mr Vavi follows his strongly criticising the government's performance in general, and that of Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda and Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka in particular.

He is accused of contravening a decision of the party's national executive committee not to attack alliance leaders in public. But the ANC had no jurisdiction over Cosatu, which Mr Vavi was representing when he issued his criticism.

Mr Vavi told Business Day the move was an attempt to "silence" him after he raised the alarm over impropriety in the state. "I will continue to speak out against corruption, I will never stop."

Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said: "It is clearly a misguided and mischievous attempt to smear the general secretary, possibly motivated by fear that he might be taking a position of leadership in the ANC in 2012. It seeks to suggest that he is some kind of trouble-maker, comparable with the president of the ANC Youth League, which is totally groundless."

Cosatu said the ANC's planned censure was "unprecedented" in the history of the alliance and amounted to efforts to silence Cosatu leaders who spoke out against corruption.

"Zwelinzima Vavi speaks as the voice of the workers and the poor, fully mandated by the Cosatu membership, and will never be silenced by threats of disciplinary charges."

The National Union of Mineworkers, Cosatu's most powerful affiliate, also warned the ANC, saying any attempt to sanction Mr Vavi would be met with stiff resistance. News of the planned censure also triggered condemnation from the South African Communist Party (SACP), the other member of the ruling alliance.

"There is a small grouping in the ANC that is in a hurry to gain power, and alliance leaders stand in the way of their get-rich-quick scheme," SACP spokesman Malesela Maleka said. The SACP said efforts to weaken the alliance would be resisted.

Yesterday Cosatu accused some ANC leaders of sneaking in the decision to sanction Mr Vavi when the party's national working committee met for its weekly gathering at Luthuli House, and also of leaking the story to the media.

"Our suspicion is that this decision was pushed through by representatives of a tendency within the ANC leadership who are hell-bent on their agenda of self-enrichment and crass materialism. We suspect it was taken at the end of a meeting from which many members had already left," Mr Craven said.

Alliance leaders said they believe the efforts against Mr Vavi were orchestrated by a faction aligned to ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, who escaped expulsion from the party last month in exchange for a plea bargain.

But the league's spokesman, Floyd Shivambu, told Business Day yesterday the league was not aware of any planned disciplinary action against Mr Vavi. "If it is a decision of the ANC, then we will respect it, the way we do all decisions by the ANC," Mr Shivambu said.

It is understood that Mr Malema's supporters want to place ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe in an untenable position by forcing him to take action against a fellow leftist. By doing so, they want to demonstrate that Mr Mantashe is "conflicted" in his position, as he is also chairman of the SACP and a former trade unionist. The league wants to oust Mr Mantashe and replace him with Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula.

"No leader of Cosatu can or will ever be disciplined by another organisation for doing the federation's work on behalf of its 2-million members," Cosatu said.