Jaspreet Kindra
The ruling African National Congress’s alliance partners the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party are unlikely to field a candidate against President Thabo Mbeki next year.
“Unless the current leadership continues down the self-destructive path,” adds a senior alliance leader referring to Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete declaring that three senior ANC members were under investigation in connection with a plot to overthrow Mbeki.
Tshwete’s statement revived old divisions within the ANC between the former United Democratic Front members, members who were in exile and members of Umkhonto weSizwe.
It also raised disquiet among Cosatu and the SACP, which have long nursed grievances against Mbeki for having systematically cut them off from debate on economic policy.
But sources within the alliance point out that “it does not want to fall into the same trap as those who surround Mbeki seem to have fallen into by making an individual more important than the party”.
There are three factors influencing alliance leaders’ reluctance to break ties with the ANC. First, the partners value their own independence and integrity: “We would not like the ANC to influence our election processes, so we would prefer not to manoeuvre theirs,” pointed out an alliance source.
Besides, lobbying for an SACP-Cosatu-friendly candidate as was the case with the current ANC secretary general, Kgalema Motlanthe, who was pushed through by the trade unions as “our man” at the ANC’s 1997 Mafikeng conference, has not worked.
While everyone speaks of the former trade unionist Motlanthe with respect, they point that he has been “effectively neutralised by the neo-liberals that surround Mbeki”.
Motlanthe indicated his frustration with his allegiances in his report to the ANC’s national general council last year when he referred to the lack of communication between the alliance partners.
Secondly, the unions and communists believe that they have a better shot at bringing about changes in the ANC by influencing the system, rather than replacing unfavourable people in authority.
Cosatu in particular operates in the employer-employee mode. The ruling ANC is the employer, while Cosatu and its support base are the employees, pointed out a senior alliance source: “We do not talk in terms of changing an employer if we find ourselves in a situation not favourable to the workers.”
Besides, the alliance partners believe that they have already made an impact on the government’s economic policy. They point out that from a conservative macroeconomic approach, the government’s stance has shifted to that of pushing “managed liberalisation of the energy, transport and telecommunication sectors”, as pronounced by Mbeki in his state of the nation address in Parliament this year.
The third factor is the fear of their candidate losing out to Mbeki. Sources speculate that the challenge would create a “lot of bad blood” between government and labour. “We would not like to burn our bridges and we have to take our constituency’s interest into account,” a source pointed out. Most acknowledge that it would be tough to win against Mbeki. They point out that his support in the ANC’s national executive committee and the Cabinet is well-entrenched.
“One would rather wait for Mbeki to finish his two terms,” said another senior alliance member.
The position of the SACP and Cosatu is to focus and push for collective leadership in its continued bid to shape and influence government policy, particularly in relation to the restructuring plans of state assets.
There is no ‘third way’ for South African labour, page 26