Public strike is about the presidential race, full stop

I was making a small comment on Dominic Mahlangu's podcast (Sunday Times politcial writer) on the public strike in South Africa. I got carried away in a good way and ended up giving some insightful opinion on the matter.

See quote, verbatim, as I wrote on the Sunday Time's podcast page:

QUOTE:
My take on this public strike issue is that it is dichotomic in that it has two purposes and the one dilutes the other.

Purpose one is that the strike is a silent political war charged at the presidential race. What with rumours abundant that Cosatu doesn’t support Mbeki on many policy issues and that it is the ‘dissenting’ voice in the tripartite allience. That its commanders want to break away and go for their own big steak at the next national elections come 2009.

I suspect that Vavi and the gang are not coming out straight that they are strongly attempting to assault and discredit the Mbeki regime by showing or painting a picture non-compliance by government regarding incentives for the labour force, which is in fact the bigger voting force. The motives are beyond the teacher, nurse and policeman out there and these goodwilling people who just want better pay, are being exploited to settle political scores - and as a by-product, they may get their pay hike.

Purpose two. The strike may have good intentions to up the pay of the labour force. But at the same time, Vavi and the gang are attempting to help boost brand-Cosatu in line with purpose one. PR wise, Cosatu is now taking prominence more than any other issue in the country and the commanders at its chambers are ensuring that it is portrait as fighting for the good of the ordinary man, which, such a motive by the way, can be directly converted into a big voters pool at a later stage for the elections. For the followers who got a raise, 7.25 or 10% (of which the latter will not happen), will most likely side with Cosatu faction than with the ANC that, as unfortunately seen as the party in government unlike part of the tripartite in government, will be losing out.
UNQOUTE

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"Judge of a man by his questions, rather than by his answers." - Voltaire