Union disowns Cosatu and SACP leaders
THE SA Communist Party should contest for state power alone as its alliance with the ANC and Cosatu was no longer relevant.
This was the view of leaders of the Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu), which dumped Cosatu over the weekend.
Yesterday, Fawu deputy general secretary Moleko Phakedi said the SACP was failing in its role to became the vanguard party of the working class because it leaders were in President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet and other arms of the state.
Fawu held a national elective conference at the weekend when it decided to follow metalworkers’ union Numsa in dumping Cosatu and the ANC-led alliance.
“You cannot have SACP leaders in all spheres of [government] wearing black, green and gold and they wake up and wear red,” Phakedi said in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
The SACP had a meeting of its central committee over the weekend where general secretary Blade Nzimande warned Zuma not to “hang cabinet posts over our heads to keep us quiet”.
The party’s KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces have already publicly said the ANC has failed to lead the tripartite alliance and the SACP should contest elections on its own.
Phakedi said Cosatu was now a “lame duck” and apologetic “federation” pleasing the ANC.
Fawu was one of several Cosatu affiliates fighting for the reinstatement of Numsa and former Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi.
Phakedi said it was an “eventuality” they would work together with Numsa to form a political party for workers.
“It is in our view necessary for Fawu to work towards ensuring that there is a political home for the working class [and] indeed contest power at some point,” Phakedi said.
He said they would stop paying R5-million in subscriptions to Cosatu.
SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo said yesterday it was “childish” of Fawu leaders to condemn SACP leaders being in the government it had fought for.
“By the vanguard is not meant as a designer label or something one of the top leadership of Fawu can simplistically announce at a press conference,” Mashilo said.