FEDERATION TOLD TO FOCUS ON ITS CRISES
meeting of its central executive committee on Monday, after which it slammed ANC leagues for making “reckless” statements over succession. Yesterday, Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) and the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) did not know ANC tradition on succession. While a number of Cosatu affiliates have openly endorsed Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s name, the federation said it was waiting for full consultations by unions. “There are three organisations in the ANC that have been really reckless on this issue,” Ntshalintshali said. “The youth league which for some time has been in hibernation – for a very long time – when they woke up, they came up with these issues, and the ANCWL and the MKMVA, defying the decision of the national executive committee of the ANC.” At issue is the principle where the deputy president must succeed the incumbent which the ANCYL dismisses as not being ANC policy.
“If the practice over the past 22 years has been pointing in a particular direction and you come back and say it is a figment of people [’s imagination], then we can conclude they do not know what they are talking about.”
The federation has previously expressed regret at openly announcing its preferred candidate to lead the ANC. Ntshalintshali said Cosatu was forced by ANC decline to repeat what it did in 2005 when it backed Zuma to succeed Mbeki.
“The performance of the ANC in the recent elections and the debate within the ANC and the reckless statements that other people are raising force us to say let’s go back to 2005,” he said.
ANCYL spokesman Mlondi Mkhize blasted the federation, saying it must attend to its internal crisis.
“Cosatu is collapsing and its unions are all over the show,” he said. The leadership of Cosatu must leave the ANC to deal with its affairs.”
Mkhize warned Cosatu not to provoke the youth league. MKMVA chairman Kebby Maphatsoe echoed the same sentiments.
“If you have a federation that is supposed to rebuild itself after so many unions have left, it is shocking that they are focusing on the succession debate of the ANC.
“They don’t even vote [on succession].”