A Congress of South African Trade Unions survey of worker attitudes, taken in December 2005, has found that only 65% of Cosatu members say they will vote for the African National Congress in the local elections.
Of the remainder, 10% say they will boycott the elections and 10% refused to answer the question. Although the survey is not specific, the implication is that 15% will vote for another party.
Key factors in the disillusionment with the ANC are tensions in the alliance over Jacob Zuma and perceived service delivery failures.
This week, the Mail & Guardian obtained a copy of the survey, which sampled 3 000 workers, 1 036 of them union members, in randomly chosen households within randomly chosen working-class communities.
The survey shows that 38% of Cosatu members believe the ANC has not delivered on its promises. Among other union members and non-members, the figure rises to 50%, of which 36% of non-white workers and 71% of whites believe the ANC has not delivered.
Of the Cosatu respondents, 64% believed Cosatu should stay in the alliance, while 18% said the federation should go it alone.
Although the survey did not specify the unions that are unhappy with the ANC, Cosatu last week cited the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) as organisations that have raised serious grievances about how elements of government have handled collective bargaining and workers’ conditions.
This week, Samwu general secretary Roger Ronnie said the union would not contribute financially to the local government elections owing to its past confrontations with the South African Local Government Association. He complained that about 700 members were facing disciplinary action for participating in last year’s wage strike. The union is also facing a R1,7million lawsuit brought by the Ekhuruleni municipality for damage caused during the strike.
Sadtu’s grievances emanate from its long-term battle with the Eastern Cape education department over temporary teachers and late payment of salaries and pensions. Satawu is currently engaged in a bitter battle with Transnet over restructuring.
