Cosatu could reconsider support of ANC
Cosatu could revisit its support for the ANC at its next central executive committee meeting before the May general election. The federation’s Gauteng leaders told reporters on Monday they were deeply concerned about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s failure to consult organised labour on the unbundling of Eskom and other “emerging trends reminiscent of the 1996 class project”. Gauteng provincial secretary Dumisani Dakile said Cosatu’s central committee would have to analyse these developments.
Cosatu could at its next central executive committee meeting before the May general election revisit its support of the ANC.
The federation’s Gauteng leaders told reporters on Monday that they were deeply concerned about President Cyril Ramaphosa not consulting organised labour on the unbundling of Eskom and other “emerging trends” reminiscent of the 1996 class project”.
The 1996 class project is a tag Cosatu and the SACP use to describe ANC leaders in and out of the government promoting policies that deviate from resolutions of the alliance.
Cosatu’s 2018 national congress resolved to support Ramaphosa and the ANC on condition workers’ issues were prioritised and jobs protected. Central to this was reconfiguration of the ANC-led tripartite alliance and consultation and consensus on policy issues.
Ramaphosa’s announcement in his state of the nation address last Thursday that financially strained Eskom would be split into three entities seems to have irked the federation.
Labour organisations have rejected the decision, warning that it would lead to massive job losses at the power utility.
Gauteng provincial secretary Dumisani Dakile said Cosatu’s central committee would have to analyse these developments and hoped it would be “sober” enough to make a decision in the interests of its members.
“What we thought we defeated in Polokwane, the 1996 class project, has resurfaced and [reared] its ugly head. The role played by Trevor Manuel [shows this]. He was a serious soldier of the 1996 class project, the chief architect of the NDP [National Development Plan], which we rejected. The appointment of Tito Mboweni as finance minister is part of that. The question of the unbundling is not a new debate. We thought we had resolved it. It feels like déjà vu.”
Cosatu was using its national strike planned for Thursday as a launching pad for a resistance campaign against job losses and “other antidevelopmental state tendencies”, said Dakile.
“We are launching a massive fight,” he said. “You can see and detect that the right wing of the ANC is in hegemony. One of the things we’ll need serious engagement on ... is whether the last 25 years saw a rise of capital, which is the deeper question that will be engaged with.”
Cosatu in Gauteng will be protesting at the legislature and the Minerals Council South Africa where executives of businesses and SOEs will be handed memorandums. There will be seven marches in other cities.