Bongani Majola
Since 1999, relations between the ruling African National Congress and its alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), have become steadily more strained on a range of issues including privatisation, the government’s approach to Aids and Zimbabwe, and the growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) policy.
The following are major recent milestones in a deteriorating relationship:
January 2000. The South African Municipal Workers’ Union, a Cosatu affiliate, launches a campaign against the Igoli 2002 plan, aimed at radically restructuring the city of Johannesburg. The union organises a “blockade of the city” march in Johannesburg in July 2000. Its actions result in the dismissal of several ANC city council members from the ANC.
July 2000. The National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, all affiliated to Cosatu, declare a dispute with the government over wages and restructuring. The previous year, the unions went on strike.
September 2000. Government ministers attending the Cosatu national conference are booed.
July 2001. Cosatu opts for a new slogan on privatisation: “We did not fight for liberation so that we could sell everything to the highest bidder.”
July 2001. Cosatu describes the government’s proposed changes to labour legislation as the “worst assault on workers since PW Botha”.
August 2001. Cabinet ministers and Cosatu leaders trade harsh words ahead of the union federation’s two-day general strike against privatisation. The strike coincides with the international conference on racism in Durban, to the government’s embarrassment.
August 2001. Public service unions again declare a wage dispute with the government. The dispute is resolved after the government threatens the unilateral implementation of its wage award.
September 2001. ANC national executive committee member and former ANC Youth League president Peter Mokaba declares the ANC/South African Communist Party/Cosatu alliance “dead”.
October 2001. A briefing document adopted by the ANC’s national executive committee accuses ultra-leftists in Cosatu of subverting the national democratic revolution and of planning the launch of a separate party. In the same month, Cosatu announces it will spearhead a “People’s Summit” to debate alternatives to Gear. Cosatu president Willy Madisha says he has received anonymous death threats.
November 2001. Cosatu launches a fight against the government’s first test case of water privatisation in Nelspruit, describing it as “a total debacle”.
January 2002. At a bilateral meeting on the state of the alliance, President Thabo Mbeki accuses Cosatu leaders of trying to undermine his presidency.