Johannesburg | Sunday
SOUTH Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its trades union alliance partner on Saturday presented a united front, following a first meeting to iron out differences over privatisation and Aids policy between them.
In a joint statement issued by the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the country’s largest labour federation, representative Patrick Craven and Molato Mothapo said the meeting was “characterised by frank, open and robust discussions.”
They said the respective parties had reiterated their commitment to the government’s programmes of transforming South Africa to a fully-fledged non-racial democracy.
“We reaffirmed the leading role of the working class and our commitment to tackle the national, class, gender and other questions facing South African society,” the representative said.
The immediate task faced by the alliance was to ensure that it implemented programmes aimed at bettering the lives of all South Africans, especially the poorest of the poor, they said.
The meeting between the ANC and Cosatu, who with the South African Communist Party (SACP) form a tripartheid alliance, comes after months of speculation over a possible split in the movement.
Relations between the ANC and Cosatu were strained last year over the ANC-led government’s policy to privatise state assets.
Cosatu has also criticised the government for not providing some 4,7-million HIV-positive South Africans with anti-retroviral drugs. – AFP