SACP and Cosatu at odds over elections

THE SACP and its ally Cosatu yesterday squared off over the call by Communist Party structures to contest elections in 2019 in opposition to the ANC.

Cosatu said it suspected that the leaders in the SACP structures calling for the party to contest for state power wanted jobs in government and legislatures.

This did not sit well with the SACP, which hit back by saying that Cosatu undermined its structures.

Yesterday the two allies met to discuss their approach to the ANC succession next year, among other issues.

Before the meeting, Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said that they wanted to challenge the SACP on the issue of contesting elections.

COSATU also noted that there are already calls from some structures of the SACP to contest state power. “This is not a new call though because we often hear it being made when relations within the Alliance are bad or dysfunctional,” he said.

SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo said the call to contest elections had been made by the Young Communist League as early as 2005 and had been defeated at a special congress of the party last year.

The SACP decided to establish a committee on state power to constantly “evaluating the efficacy of our ANC-led alliance electoral strategy”.

“To treat the call by the YCLSA and Mpumalanga Province as if it is new, and to narrow the important question of state power that is at the centre of every struggle to a competition for state jobs, is to undermine the bona fides of those SACP structures that are making the call,” he said.

The party will debate contesting elections at its congress next year July. –