Stable leadership needed, says Cosatu

COSATU president S’dumo Dlamini said yesterday that “stability of leadership” was the message that workers were sending the ANC as it proceeded to its own elective conference in Mangaung.

“This country does not need factionalism, it doesn’t need divisions of leadership. In practice, it’s stability – that’s what we want and need,” Dlamini said, departing from his prepared text when closing Cosatu’s four-day congress in Midrand.

Delegates loudly applauded when he said he hoped the ANC would be able to “take lessons” from Cosatu’s congress – as well as that of the SACP in July – where the top leaders had been re-elected unopposed.

The past four days saw careful management by Cosatu’s leadership to avoid direct discussion of succession in the ANC – in line with a Cosatu position adopted in agreement with the party, which is set to open its nominations on October 1.

A last-ditch attempt to open the leadership debate to the floor came after lunch from metalworkers’ union Numsa – and was swiftly shut down.

It had been agreed on the first day that the central executive would manage resolutions – including those on the ANC leadership – and hammer out a programme of action to pursue Cosatu’s call for radical social and economic change (see story below).

Numsa’s Irvin Jim said the issue was a “hot potato” and should be discussed, but the National Union of Mineworkers and Cosatu first deputy president Tyotyo James shut it down.

Those pushing for the debate were, however, able to extract the concession that there would be no “corridor influence” and that the final decision of the central executive committee after it met in the first week of October would be conveyed to members in time for the nominations process that would then be getting under way in ANC branches.

Influence

More than 500 000 of Cosatu’s more than 2 million members also belong to the ANC, which has a membership of 1.2 million. This will not necessarily translate into direct influence on who gets nominated, however.

While speculation has been running high that there will be a push for a second term for ANC president Jacob Zuma, neither Cosatu’s leadership nor its affiliates are at one on this.

Pledging that Cosatu would ensure unity in the broader alliance, Dlamini said: “There is no time for petty squabbles, our people are crying out for our leadership.”

Members had made it clear that they wanted a united federation, he said. He urged workers who “out of anger” had left to join unions outside Cosatu’s fold to return.

“Come back and address your issues inside the organisation,” he said. “We will address them.”

Cosatu would avoid those wanting to “liquidate our movement and sow disunity among our people and inside our movement”. General secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told journalists that the congress had been “frank and constructive”.

The congress adopted a declaration that said people’s patience after 18 years of freedom was running out and that radical social and economic change had to be the core element of the ANC’s second phase of the democratic transition – to improve the lives of SA’s workers and the poor.