‘ANC could abandon radical policies’
COSATU has warned that the ANC could abandon the implementation of radical policies if the party is not kept in check.
The trade union federation – which is holding its elective conference on Monday – is worried that the absence of its leaders and those of the SACP in the ANC leadership structures could result in the governing party not implementing its policies.
In an organisational report to the conference, the federation said it would continue pondering on the reliability and conviction of the ANC leadership on the “radical second phase”, accusing the party of showing signs that it could abandon its resolutions if it was not kept in check.
“To illustrate the point, while some in the movement may choose to treat it as an isolated instance and justifiable on some grounds known to the leadership, but the quick retreat that was made by the ANC when the issue of the nationalisation of the SA Reserve Bank was raised in Parliament is indeed an ominous signal,” it said.
Cosatu said it was sceptical about the ANC’s national executive committee’s willingness to fully implement the policies, saying union leaders and those of the SACP had been sidelined in the top structure last year.
“As mentioned in the foregoing, in the leading organ of the ANC, the NEC, our leading working-class cadres from Cosatu and SACP have all but been removed – there are only three elected into the ANC NEC, two of whom are from Cosatu.
“Compared to the previous NEC that was elected in Mangaung, this is a complete rout if ever there was a consciously organised ideological or class contestation riding on the NEC elections.
“This devastatingly diminished influence of the working class somewhat discloses the class orientations of both of the main factions that contested the top leadership positions at Nasrec,” Cosatu said.
The federation campaigned for Cyril Ramaphosa to take over from Jacob Zuma as president, who it had banned from its gatherings due to his implication in allegations of corruption.
Cosatu added that Ramaphosa’s “new dawn” lacked clarity in terms of policy content and practical meaning.
“While we took a principled decision calling for the deputy ANC president (Ramaphosa) to succeed as per historical precedent, we need to develop a grasp of the ideological politics underlying the ‘new dawn’ and vigilantly analyse the discussions of the ANC leading executive structures, given the diminished presence of the working class, but always observing practice rather than just rhetoric,” the federation said.
Cosatu said the ANC’s resolutions at Nasrec – including free higher education, expropriation of land without compensation and nationalisation of the Reserve Bank – had to be appropriated as an inspiration to exert pressure on the ANC government for their implementation.
The federation is calling for the reconfiguration of the alliance so that the alliance makes the final decisions on policies and who is deployed into government.