Affiliates at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) congress agreed on Wednesday to withdraw a proposal calling for more labour federation representatives among African National Congress MPs.
”We would like to have this proposal stricken off, ” National Unions of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) secretary general Slumnko Nondwangu told delegates at Cosatu’s eighth congress in Midrand.
The proposal was composed by Numsa and is contained in a Cosatu resolutions dossier, which was discussed at the congress.
In the 100-page dossier called ”consolidated resolutions”, Numsa urged Cosatu to demand to be part of the government without any direct link with other members of the tripartite alliance.
Numsa proposed that Cosatu should ask for 20% of ANC MPs to come directly from the labour federation.
”Cosatu should develop clear accountability and recall clauses should our representatives not take forward the federation’s positions,” the union said.
Affiliates at the four-day congress, which started on Monday, also agreed to amend a proposal on the election process of premiers and mayors.
One of the proposals in this regard calls on the ANC leadership to no longer appoint premiers and mayors — the provincial leader of a party should be the premier, and in local government, the mayor should be the party leader in that municipal area.
”This needs to be reformulated to reflect the internal arrangements of the ANC,” Numsa’s Gwede Mantashe said.
”If the alliance can appoint its national leadership, why should this process not be carried out to other spheres of government?” — Sapa