S.Africa's top trade union gets first woman president

TRADE

South Africa's largest trade union federation on Tuesday elected a woman president, a first for the 33-year-old labour movement that helped lead the anti-apartheid fight.

Zingiswa Losi was nominated unopposed at an annual meeting of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in Johannesburg's northern Midrand suburb.

The former soldier served in the South African army for three years before going to work at the Ford car plant in the southern city of Port Elizabeth.

Her workers' rights activism began while she was in the military, according to Cosatu which has 1.6 million members.

Losi was a contender for the ruling African National Congress' (ANC) influential deputy secretary general job but was pipped by the incumbent, Jesse Duarte.

Cosatu plays a key role in South African politics and provided logistical support to the anti-apartheid struggle.

Since the advent of democracy in 1994, it has been an important source of grassroots support for the ANC