Cosatu debates withdrawing support for ruling party
Cutting ties is one option on the table
Sparks are expected to fly when Cosatu affiliates debate whether the trade union federation should dump the ANC during elections and encourage members to vote for political parties of their own choice.
It is understood that workers are also losing patience with the SACP’S failure to ready itself to contest elections independent of the ANC and are now considering allowing members to vote for other political parties.
The country’s biggest trade union federation’s central committee is holding a four-day meeting starting tomorrow. The mid-term gathering will take stock of the progress of the implementation of the federation’s resolutions taken at the last elective congress in 2018.
According to the political report prepared by the organisation’s officials and which will be tabled for discussion, workers must make a tough decision as the Anc-led tripartite alliance, which also includes the SACP, is not working as envisaged by the workers.
At its last congress, the federation had resolved to continue supporting the ANC on the basis that there would be a reconfiguration of the alliance, which would have resulted in policy decisions and the deployment of leaders into government being decided by the three organisations instead of the governing party.
Cosatu and the SACP had also wanted the ANC to have a “minimum quota” of their leaders in its ranks, failing which the federation would strengthen the SACP to contest elections after the 2019 general elections.
However, the SACP’S lack of readiness to contest elections as an independent party has compelled workers to consider other options, including not supporting the ANC during elections.
The report explores three scenarios regarding the forthcoming local elections: “Mobilising and voting for the ANC and participating in the manifesto processes to affirm a clear working-class perspective as the running thread in the ANC and alliance. Persuading the SACP, which is less likely with the little time left, to consider standing and contesting as a party in its own right and Cosatu to mobilise for its electoral victory.”
The document further argues that workers must consider allowing “individual members to vote on their own personal choices and consciences, without a Cosatu political choice to assert a collective voice”.
“The choices Cosatu opts to make shall be groundbreaking or shall have been preceded by prior cases. Whichever way, it shall have short-term and longterm repercussions for workers and the country’s political and economic landscape. This is why it is important that it is well thought through and carefully explained to workers and society, as well as foresighted in what the long-term implications shall be,” reads the document.
Cosatu officials, led by their president Zingiswa Losi, said the federation needs to determine next week whether the SACP is ready to contest elections.
The conditions will never be perfect for the SACP to contest elections and the idea that the party should wait is problematic, the Cosatu leadership said, adding that the party should create conditions to go at it alone.
“This also brings us closer to the question of what will happen if the SACP does not consider standing for elections or contesting for state power in that sense and the ANC still does not change its current posture regarding stunted transformation,” the report says.
The ANC has already suffered a major blow when Cosatu’s biggest affiliate, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) decided last December not to back the ANC’S election campaign.
Nehawu, which has traditionally been a strong campaigner of the ANC with its membership of over 270 000 in the public sector, said it would no longer use its money and leaders to canvass votes for the ANC.
The government has had a major fallout with public sector unions after it went to court to oppose parts of the 2018 wage agreement that would have seen salary increases of 4.4% and 5% from April last year.
On Friday, Nehawu general secretary Zola Saphetha reiterated the union’s decision.
“The truth of the matter is we don’t have money for elections, so our decision stands. However, the decision of Cosatu is binding to us too. So, we reported to Cosatu CEC that it’s unfortunate our support will not translate into material [resources] support but is political,” he said.
Cosatu officials said government’s reneging on the wage agreement is an “overall offensive on collective bargaining”.
“The austerity measures that have been adopted since 2014 and the taxation system that has seen an increase in VAT and the fuel levy confirm this disturbing posture by the ANC government. There have been concerns from the workers over the last couple of years on whether the working class has real influence within the ANC,” the report further states.
The choices the Federation opts to make shall be groundbreaking