Mashudu Sadike and Baldwin Ndaba
Pretoria - Cosatu has endorsed the SACP in the general elections in 2024.
This was confirmed by the re-elected Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi, who said the federation wanted the voice of the SACP to be “heard loud and clear”.
Losi said they would campaign with the SACP in accordance with their election modalities. Despite endorsing the SACP, Losi said they were demanding the reconfiguration of the tripartite alliance partners. She said all the partners must be treated as “equal members”.
“This congress has reaffirmed its support for the SACP, the vanguard party, and the need for it to contest elections as part of the advancement of the national democratic revolution. Its voice must be heard loud and clear.
“We will undertake engagements with the SACP on the modalities of this call in line with the consultation processes adopted by the party at its recent national congress,” she said.
Losi made known their electoral choice despite failing to officially declare the outcome of the vote on the motion to dump the ANC in favour of the SACP.
However, according to insiders, a total of 543 delegates voted in favour of dumping the ANC, while 194 voted against it.
Insiders told Independent Media that the majority unions, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union and the SA Municipal Workers’ Union, and smaller unions would now call for an urgent special national congress of Cosatu for it to ratify its support for the SACP.
In her address, Losi also warned the ANC government that it should immediately implement the 2018 bargaining council wage agreement which it had reneged on – a major source of Cosatu unions’ anger and their decision to defy the ANC.
“We cannot normalise a 44% unemployment rate, rising levels of poverty and inequality. We will no longer tolerate municipal workers being sent home unpaid.
“No employer, be it government, state-owned enterprise or the private sector, will be allowed to undermine collective bargaining without facing the wrath of workers, our affiliates and Cosatu. Let this warning be heard loud and clear.
“We will not accept the abuse of any worker. They are not the slaves of any employer,” Losi said.
Her closing remarks were drastically different from her opening statement on Monday when she urged Cosatu unions to rally behind the ANC government in the 2024 national elections to avoid a DA-led coalition government.
At the time, she said the coalition government would undermine the interests of workers, but the outcome of the congress changed her tune dramatically.
However, the outcome of the Cosatu support was likely to raise eyebrows as fewer than 800 of the 1 854 delegates at the 14th national congress voted in the motion to dump the ANC.
Cracks in Cosatu were clearly visible when the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union general secretary, Mugwena Maluleke, admitted to differences and a possible split about the decision.
“We are saying that we have a congress decision of supporting the ANC and the congress. So if the SACP takes a decision to contest, we are then compelled as an organisation to call a special congress that will then take a firm decision on that matter,” Maluleke said.
He admitted that his union did not participate in the motion. “So, we are not going to vote on this matter and that is because we don’t have a mandate to vote on either the ANC or SACP.”
Losi swept to victory at the congress unopposed to secure a second term to lead the federation of workers.
For the position of deputy general secretary, Gerald Thwala defeated Moses Lekota in a landslide victory, gaining 1 187 votes to 599.
Nehawu’s Mike Shingange was elected as the first deputy president, while Duncan Luvuno from the NUM and Freda Oosthuizen from the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union were elected as the second deputy president and treasurer respectively.
Solly Phetoe took the position of general secretary. He is from the NUM.
Pretoria News