There is growing tension within the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) about its political mandate. Union leaders appear to be deeply divided over who should succeed Thabo Mbeki as ANC president in December.
Although Cosatu will not have voting powers at the ANC’s elective conference, it resolved at its ninth congress last year that its members should actively participate in identifying the ANC leadership that will be sympathetic to the interests of the working class.
So far, Cosatu KwaZulu-Natal remains the only provincial structure that has completed its list, which excluded Mbeki and the majority of his Cabinet. Predictably, the provincial structure proposed ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma as the next ANC president.
Cosatu is expected to finalise the list of its preferred ANC candidates during the federation’s central committee meeting next month.
The Mail & Guardian has, however, established that some senior leaders within Cosatu have raised serious reservations about Cosatu’s involvement in identifying ANC leaders.
Those opposed to the move include Cosatu’s three major affiliates — the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu). In an interview with the M&G this week, the three unions argued that Cosatu’s involvement in identifying ANC leaders was likely to worsen divisions within the federation and could result in those leaders identified by Cosatu being alienated by the ANC.
Numsa general secretary Silumko Nondwangu said if names “external to Cosatu” were put forward by unions, this was likely to be divisive. “It may become an external factional discussion. The matter of names is external. We are not trying to close the discussion, but to the extent that it is going to lead us to that level, it could become problematic. It can’t be only names that come first. We should first look at the implications of what we are doing. This is a complex matter. There is no short cut to it. There should first be clarity of purpose, reason and objective,” said Nondwangu.
His views are shared by NUM general secretary Frans Baleni and Nehawu president Noluthando Sibiya. “There is nothing wrong with influencing the leadership of the ANC, but we don’t have to come up with names — as Cosatu. This could polarise the situation. Any organisation wants to be seen to be independent. Once another organisation imposes itself, you will see resistance. We don’t want that,” said Baleni.
Sibiya said the issue of the ANC leadership should be left to the ANC.
But Cosatu’s teachers’ union Sadtu, backed by provincial structures in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, argued that Cosatu should come up with its own list of candidates for the ANC leadership.
Sadtu deputy president Thobile Ntola said: “I don’t see any other way to deal with the issue … without coming up with names. When Cosatu took this resolution, all those who are now opposing the issue of names were present. No one has the right to renege on the congress resolution on the basis of their interpretation.”
Cosatu’s provincial secretary in KwaZulu-Natal, Zet Luzipo, said Cosatu should be involved in the selection of ANC leaders because the majority of ANC members came from the working class. “For me, it is political opportunism if people would want to contest the issue of names. Why was this not raised when we took the resolution last year?” Luzipo queried.
A senior Cosatu leader in Gauteng, who spoke to the M&G on condition of anonymity, questioned the timing of Cosatu’s central committee meeting. Usually the central committee is regarded as a mid-term review after every congress. As Cosatu’s congress occurred last September, the central committee meeting would normally take place in mid-2008.
“It is clear that some people want to use this to discuss Limpopo [the ANC conference]. If we have ambitions to come up with a list, we must go to branches and engage with the members of the ANC. It would be very difficult for Cosatu’s list to find expression at the ANC branch level. People seem to have forgotten that this is exactly the reason why Gwede Manthashe, then-general secretary of NUM, failed to make it to the ANC’s national executive committee in 2002.”
Meanwhile, the M&G understands that a head office group is lobbying other Cosatu structures to pass a vote of no confidence against Cosatu president Willie Madisha at next month’s central committee.
Madisha, regarded as anti-Zuma by some within Cosatu, has been under intense pressure after he allegedly leaked damaging information about Vavi’s personal life and his alleged abuse of a Cosatu credit card. Although Vavi publicly denied the allegations last year, it has been reported that he is now paying the money back to Cosatu.