A planned civil-society coalition — likened to the United Democratic Front (UDF) of the 1980s — will not become a political party to challenge the African National Congress, organisers said on Sunday.
”Cosatu [the Congress of South African Trade Unions] is not creating an organisation called the United Democratic Front and it is not challenging the ANC,” said Paul Notyhawa, a spokesperson for Cosatu.
The Sunday Independent reported in a story headlined ”New UDF to challenge ANC” that the anti-apartheid coalition would be revived later this month.
The report said Cosatu had joined forces with civil society, religious bodies and social movements to reform a UDF-style organisation.
It would be to the left of the ANC and was described by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi as ”the working class on the run”.
Notyhawa said Cosatu’s partnership with the ANC, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) has been the main way it has pursued its goals.
But Cosatu has also collaborated with ”other progressive organisations, including the South African Council of Churches, the Treatment Action Campaign, the South African Non-Government Organisation Coalition, Black Sash and many others”.
Involving such groups in its ”jobs and poverty campaign” is a logical continuation of a long-established policy.
”While the new organisation may well share some of the aims of the former UDF, no decision has been taken on using this name.”
The new grouping is ”totally compatible” with a continued alliance with the ANC, SACP and Sanco.
The SACP’s general secretary, Blade Nzimande, said he has been reassured that the proposed coalition will not become a party.
”I have been assured by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi that there is absolutely no intention of turning such a movement or coalition into a political party or movement any time in the future,” he said.
Nzimande concede there are ”small elements” in Cosatu who want to turn the federation into a party, ”in competition with the SACP, in particular”.
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama was unavailable for comment ”to any media”, a person who answered his cellphone said.
The SACP central committee this weekend committed itself to strengthening its alliance with the ANC.
”The SACP also reaffirms the importance and centrality of the alliance, and of the need to foster a deepening unity in action,” spokesperson Kaizer Mohau said.
The central committee also resolved to endorse the recent land-summit resolutions to dump the willing-buyer-willing-seller principle in agrarian reform and for a review of foreign land ownership.
”The government must come up with a new strategy to accelerate land and agrarian reform,” Mohau said.
The SACP also repeated its call for an amnesty for people blacklisted at credit bureaus.
”The crisis of indebtedness of poor households is a ticking time bomb, an unsustainable reality that must be addressed with a sense of urgency.” — Sapa