Glenda Daniels and Jaspreet Kindra
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is to put the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) back on the table at its 10-a-side “tripartite alliance” meeting with the African National Congress, now set for November.
The RDP has been a flashpoint between Cosatu and the government, with the unions claiming it was abandoned in favour of the “neo-liberal” growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) strategy.
After a Cosatu central executive committee meeting last Friday, the federation’s president, Willy Madisha, said four issues had been singled out as central to the union platform.
These were the minimum programme of governance; how to reach consensus over economic policy; protocol in the alliance; and how to reach an understanding of what “national democratic revolution” means.
Madisha says for Cosatu, the minimum programme of governance is about putting the RDP back on the agenda. Cosatu wants to convince its alliance partners to set time frames for the achievement of its objectives.
Economic policy will be the tricky issue, Madisha says, adding that “there is no consensus between partners at all over the economic direction in the country. Out of these talks on macroeconomic policy will arise the question of the restructuring of state assets and privatisation. We are going into them with an open mind.”
ANC representative Nomfanelo Kota says the ANC national executive committee will meet at the weekend to finalise an agenda and a precise date for the alliance summit.
High-level leaders of the ANC met union leaders this week in a bid to mend fences, after the Mail & Guardian reported moves to oust top communists from the ANC’s national executive committee.
Senior ANC insiders confirmed recent discussions in its national working committee over “the dual ANC-SACP mandate” of certain national executive members.
South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande and his deputy, Jeremy Cronin, are said to have been in the spotlight. Both have been the SACP’s public face in defying the government’s privatisation campaign.