The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has launched a stinging attack on President Thabo Mbeki that appears to reiterate what was contained in the hard-hitting South African Communist Party discussion document released last week.
At a press conference on Thursday, after Cosatu’s central executive committee meeting (CEC), the federation said that it was primarily concerned that the ANC leadership was “drifting towards dictatorship”.
“This appears in the use of state institutions in narrow factional fights. We see it in the use of sections of the media to assassinate the character of individuals through off-the-record briefings and the leaking of sensitive information in the hands of those charged to investigate claims,” the statement said.
Cosatu warned: “Dictatorship never announces its arrival. It won’t, like drum majorettes, beat drums and parade down the streets to announce that it has arrived,” said Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu’s secretary general.
Cosatu reiterated its support for ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma in his corruption trial by emphasising that the case formed part of a political conspiracy “engineered in dark corners to frustrate comrade Jacob Zuma’s political career”.
Cosatu remained silent on whether Zuma was a suitable presidential candidate. The Mail & Guardian understands the federation is divided on the issue and that the comments Zuma made during his rape trial about HIV/Aids prevention had raised moral questions Cosatu is grappling with.
Cosatu said “some in the ANC have carefully and skilfully pursued a project to shift the ANC and the national democratic revolution from its radical character into a moderate, centre-left political party. The key feature of this strategy is low-intensity democracy, which includes marginalisation of the ANC mass base together with all formations of the mass democratic movement.”
The SACP document said it is considering contesting the 2009 elections independently because of the ANC’s failure to fulfil its mandate to the working class. Cosatu’s support of this debate suggests that it may back the SACP if it decides to go it alone.
A senior Cosatu source told the M&G this week that the majority of delegates in the CEC were in favour of the SACP contesting the elections.
“Workers will be encouraged to support the SACP and the Cosatu CEC resolved it should come up with a solution by the end of June,” said the source.
Cosatu also criticised Mbeki for calling for a woman president because he had thus opened the succession debate while condemning the ANC Youth League for doing so too early.
“It cannot be correct that others’ hands are tied by protocol while the president declares his own candidature and then consistently calls for a woman president in public instead of using the ANC structures.
“Equally it is wrong to mobilise non-ANC members to decide on who must be the next president, more so when the South African system lets the president be elected by the ANC rather than the whole electorate,” the labour federation said.
Cosatu said that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was “brutally” reminded by Mbeki that he was not an ANC member when he “ventured to make comments” about democracy in the ANC.
“Now in contrast everyone is being mobilised to decide on internal ANC matters,” Cosatu remarked.
Asked if Cosatu was opposed to a female presidency, Vavi said: “The federation is, in fact, in support of women empowerment in the country. We would be the last to decry this. What we’re opposed to is the undertones.”