The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will consider asking the ruling African National Congress to set aside 20% of its candidates for the labour federation, ahead of next year’s general election.
The resolution, proposed by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), has been tabled for discussion at the federation’s eighth national conference, which begins on September 15.
Numsa is one of Cosatu’s largest and more radical affiliates. It has about 174 000 members.
On the acceptance of such a proposal, Numsa says, Cosatu should develop “clear accountability” and “recall clauses” should the representa-tives not take forward the federation’s political positions. Labour officials often complain that former trade unionists co-opted by the ANC to Parliament in the past have failed to take care of working-class interests.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers has mooted that the alliance should open up the internal debate on the electoral system.
The union has proposed that Cosatu should push for a mixed system that would allow 65% of representatives to be elected directly and 35% by proportional representation.
The Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) and the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) have proposed the continuation of the federation’s anti-privatisation campaign. The CWU has suggested that the federation and its affiliates must develop capacity to deal with the restructuring issues.
Satawu has suggested that the affiliates affected by the restructuring of parastatals should establish a restructuring and coordinating team.