Cosatu blasts ANC for ‘weak leadership’

COSATU has criticised the ANC over what it calls the party’s poor management of its affairs and the country.

It indicated it was pushing the SACP to build its capacity and readiness to contest elections, as it said it was becoming more difficult to give workers reasons to vote for the ANC.

This week, Cosatu held its central executive committee meeting, where it discussed labour and political issues.

Yesterday, Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said the ANC was facing a legitimacy crisis before the local government elections.

“Some of these challenges have left many workers feeling like they are being asked to vote against their … interests,” he said.

Cosatu claimed the ANC was plagued by divisions, ill-discipline and an inability to implement progressive policies in government, including the resolutions it adopted at its Nasrec conference in 2017.

“On paper, the Nasrec conference and the 2019 manifesto promised key advances towards an economic policy based on decent work, proposals for a new growth path, a new industrial policy, National Health Insurance, comprehensive social protection, a comprehensive rural development strategy and an assault on crime and corruption,” Ntshalintshali said.

Cosatu slammed what it called misguided and opportunistic attacks on the judiciary by politicians facing corruption allegations, including former president Jacob Zuma, with the federation’s deputy president Mike Shingange accusing them of having benefited from the Constitution but attacking it when it suited them.

“They are citizens of this country who have benefited from the same Constitution.Some of them happened to be ministers and … presidents of the state, simply because the Constitution gives them that right,” Shingange said.