/ 10 September 2010

ANC not assured of Cosatu’s support

President Jacob Zuma and the ANC’s national executive committee are not assured of Cosatu’s support at the next elective conference of the ANC, warns an internal Cosatu document released this week.

The political discussion paper, titled “Alliance at a crossroads — the battle against a predatory elite and political paralysis”, assesses the political inroads that Cosatu has made since the ANC’s Polokwane conference.

Cosatu declares that the ANC’s current leaders should serve until 2012, but that “Cosatu will … carefully consider its continued support for this NEC leadership collective in the next term, based on its performance in addressing key Polokwane mandate issues.”

The document paints a grim picture of Cosatu’s gains since Polokwane, which were not as substantial as hoped.

“We face a serious crisis of legitimacy among workers if we can’t demonstrate concrete gains in terms of worker rights and socioeconomic progress ahead of the local government elections,” it says.

The federation asks why ANC ­leaders cannot break the impasse in the tripartite alliance.

“Is the ANC simply too compromised by these developments and is the leadership unable to appeal to that same membership [who elected it in Polokwane]?” the document asks. Cosatu does not however want to “unleash a regime-change debate” for fear of undermining ANC unity.

The document comes down hard on Zuma, accusing him of not being decisive enough in dealing with political stalemates in the alliance and between it and the government.

“[The president] needs to act to unblock the impasse around the responsibility for economic coordination and … to assert the importance of taking forward the agreement that the alliance needs to act as a strategic political centre.”

The main faultline highlighted by the document centres on responsibility for economic policy.

Cosatu expected the new economic development department, led by former Cosatu leader Ebrahim Patel, to lead the economic policy review, but instead treasury is reportedly working on a new macroeconomic policy.

Cosatu says the alliance cannot hold a summit because it might “implode” because of differing views.

Furthermore, Cosatu will resist calls for a social accord because business is too fragmented, whereas the ANC has not been able to draft an alliance pact to clarify the roles of the component organisations, in spite of Cosatu’s pleas.

Cosatu indicated it was rethinking its role in the ANC’s election campaign. “In the run-up to 2011 we must avoid articulating our criticism and mobilising the masses around our campaigns, but then calling on members to vote, that is, business as usual. We need an alternative approach.”

Cosatu has decided to be selective about which candidates to support in next year’s municipal elections, saying it will not campaign for those “known to be corrupt or lazy”.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe moved this week to calm alliance relations, saying that a meeting with Cosatu is scheduled for Monday, and an alliance summit would take place before the end of the year.