Cosatu warns ANC on failure of land restitution

WITH slightly fewer than two weeks until its 14th national congress, Cosatu did not mince its words when it raised its concerns over the ANC’S prospects at the 2024 polls and the pace of land redistribution.

These were some of the most pressing issues for the federation this week as it released the documents set to be tabled for discussion when it convenes congress in Midrand, Johannesburg, from September 26 to 29.

In its political report and organisational report set to be tabled before the national congress in less than two weeks, Cosatu said there was a serious underlying structural constraint which flagged a potential danger of an implosion on the part of the ANC as a party that enjoyed a majority of more than 50%.

Cosatu said the ANC’S decline was significantly related to the corresponding decline in voter participation or the increase in voter apathy.

This, the federation said, was reflected in the fact that about 10 million eligible voters did not register in 2019, a figure which represented 72% of new voters, a decline from 80% in 2014.

“The youth in general and the working class youth in particular, who bore the brunt of the current triple crises, have shown a 40% drop in voter registration among the 18and 19-year-olds, who would have been first-time voters.

“Similarly, voter turnout on the election day must be a concern for the ANC as a majority party as it has fallen from the height of 89% when the ANC scored a two-thirds majority, to about 66% in 2019,” Cosatu said.

It said the 2021 local government elections affirmed the trending decline of the ANC’S electoral support amid mismanagement and the swelling service delivery backlogs at the local level.

“The fact that for the first time the ANC vote dropped below 50% in the 2021 local government elections is a historic and dire indication that, unless drastic changes are effected in the performance of the economy and ANC governments across all tiers as well as improvements in the state of the organisation itself, 2024 might be beckoning a medium-term future of governance through coalitions with reactionary parties.”

The federation also hit out at the slow pace of land redistribution since the dawn of democracy and also criticised the gender inequality of the process, with only 7.7% of land claims beneficiaries being women.

The criticism of the snail’s pace of land redistribution was contained in Cosatu’s socio-economic and international report, also to be tabled at the federation’s national congress.

Cosatu said land restitution and tenure reform policies had failed as the more than 79 000 claims lodged for restitution had been finalised at a rate of 560 claims per year.

The federation said evictions of vulnerable groups such as labour tenants, farmworkers and women had increased since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy in 1994.