Pretoria - Fears of a possible split in the country’s biggest trade union federation, Cosatu, have forced its top leaders to put on ice any announcement about its preferred choice to either support the ANC or SACP in the 2024 elections.
Cosatu held its first central executive committee meeting this week after its national congress in September in which some of its biggest affiliate unions like Nehawu, Popcru and others voted in favour of the federation supporting the SACP to contest on its own in 2024.
According to the preliminary outcome of the votes, those in favour of the divorce from the ANC were in the majority, but the top leaders of Cosatu disputed the results.
In September, Cosatu leaders said they would make an official decision on the outcome of the vote, after its first CEC meeting that concluded on Thursday, but it was not to be. The SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) – the second biggest affiliate after Nehawu, opposed any move to divorce the ANC and did not participate in the voting.
Yesterday, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla admitted that the overriding discussion was around the historic resolution of the SACP’s 14th national congress on “state and popular power”. He said the SACP’s resolution directed it to actively contest elections as one means of building working-class hegemony.
“The federation in its congress pushed for the implementation of this resolution. This was informed by the realisation that the swelling-of-the-ranks campaign, alone, unaccompanied by a sustained working class hegemony at the apex of the ANC has proven to have major limitations,” he said.
Pamla admitted that there was a strong view that Cosatu should vote for the SACP. However, the federation failed to make a final decision on this yesterday.
“While there are some prickly matters that are being discussed, the CEC has emphasised that the unity and cohesion of our unions and federation is sacrosanct. The meeting committed itself to combating any signs of a backward slide to tensions and divisions over this matter.
“The federation will continue to engage both internally and externally to make sure that it finds a harmonious position that preserves its unity and that of its affiliates and the alliance.
“We intend to build on the existing understanding and consensus, guided by material conditions and consultation outcomes, to reach a unifying position on when and how this resolution will be realised.
“We shall also employ tactical flexibility since we are operating within a rapidly and ever-changing political context. Our immediate task is to work with the SACP to build its organisational capacity among working-class communities as primary sites of building working class power to lead a popular movement for socialism,” Pamla said.
He said it was their task as the organised working class to ensure that the SACP was capacitated to play its rightful role, carry out its identified tasks and meet its challenges.
Due to the internal divisions in Cosatu, the federation has also issued a statement calling on the ANC to have a successful national elective conference, but emphasised that its resolutions must favour the needs of the working class.
“The conference needs to address the chronic weak state of the ANC in terms of organisational cohesion and strategy, and the disarray of its leagues.”
Pamla said that it was critical that the ANC’s conference not only focused on the need to accelerate the renewal and cleansing of the ANC, but also on restoring its working class bias, saying the ANC needed to be united to focus on leading the government so that it could effectively tackle the myriad serious challenges affecting society.
Pretoria News