Cosatu calls for end to ANC infighting
ANC ally Cosatu yesterday called on the ruling party to stop infighting in its ranks and corruption in government.
Cosatu – which played a crucial role in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as ANC president in 2017 – repeated its call for the president to drop ministers implicated in wrongdoing when he appoints his Cabinet.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the party’s dip in electoral support from 62.15% in 2014 to 57% during last week’s general elections was because people were angry that the organisation had failed to implement “important and progressive policies” to tackle the crises of unemployment, inequality and poverty as promised.
“The federation is calling on the ANC leadership to stop the factional infighting and focus on firmly taking the reins of both the organisation and government. The ANC needs to show firmness and decisiveness in dealing with indiscipline in the organisation and corruption in government and reposition the ANC and government to provide political and moral leadership to society,” Pamla said.
“The president needs to do that by appointing a Cabinet composed of people who are beyond reproach and do away with the recycling of ministers. We cannot continue to tolerate mediocrity and incompetence,” he added.
Factionalism reared its head in the ANC when secretary-general Ace Magashule and head of elections Fikile Mbalula were locked in a war of words.
The drama started when Mbalula said that the election of Ramaphosa at Nasrec two years ago averted a disastrous performance at the polls, which could have dropped to 40% compared to the 57% it managed to gain.
This was dismissed by Magashule, who said people had voted for the ANC, not an individual.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of special meeting of the national executive committee (NEC), Magashule stood his ground on his comments regarding the perception that Ramaphosa aided the ANC in the elections.
“The president was the leader of the (election) campaign. The collective worked to provide the outcome of the elections,” he said.
“The election campaign was led by Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa energised South Africans to vote ANC, working with the collective,” he said.
Magashule denied that there had been a fall out with Ramaphosa.
“No fallout between me and the president. We work as the leadership of the ANC. We are working very well with the president.”
Yesterday’s NEC meeting was the first since the elections last week.
Meanwhile, Catholic bishops have added their voices to calls made to Ramaphosa to dump ministers implicated in wrongdoing.
Spokesperson Archbishop William Slattery said an issue of grave concern to many citizens, which also posed a serious threat to the country’s young democracy, was the high level of corruption.
“Now that the election is over, we expect the president of our nation to dispense with the politics of expediency and show a firm hand in dealing with those implicated in corruption and state capture,” Slattery said.
The call by the Catholic bishops came a day after Cosatu and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation made similar statements.