The Congress of South African Trade Unions stood by its statement which the ANC criticised on Friday.
“When ANC members read that statement carefully they will see that there is no basis for the criticisms levelled in the ANC statement. The federation seeks only to unite and take forward the ANC and the alliance,” spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement.
“Cosatu however respectfully rejects the criticisms and stands by every word of its statement.”
Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said on Thursday that a small ANC faction were planning to get rid of the ANC’s secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, at the party’s national general council meeting later this year. The ruling party said these comments were “spurious and divisive”.
Cosatu has also criticised the ANC over the involvement of its investment arm in a major energy project and for a budget it said did not help the poor, as well as accusing it of materialism.
The ANC took particular exception to the Mantashe allegation.
On Friday, Cosatu affiliate the SA Municipal Workers’ Union said there were also plans by ANC elements to oust its president, Jacob Zuma.
ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said Cosatu’s comments were “untrue, devious and disingenuous”.
“Everything we seem to be doing in recent days seems not to [find] favour with Cosatu. Taking pot-shots at the ANC and its government show signs by Cosatu of veering toward oppositional politics and not sticking to alliance politics and traditions,” Mthembu said.
Craven said Cosatu’s comments were directed only at the ruling party faction.
“The comments which are being condemned as ‘divisive’ were certainly not directed against the ANC as a whole, and we are confident that the ANC membership and the majority of South Africans will overwhelmingly support the strong stance Cosatu has taken,” Craven said.
He said this was a stance against “a small right-wing tendency led by materialists and tenderpreneurs within the ANC leadership” who are “trying hard to take us back to the politics of labelling, name calling, back-stabbing, rumour and scandal mongering, marginalisation and closure of space for free and democratic debates.
“We are criticising a small unrepresentative group who want to reverse the great progress we have made since the ANC 2007 Polokwane conference.”
Craven said Cosatu sought to unite the alliance and the country behind the “excellent resolutions” passed in Polokwane and “the leadership which it elected, in which we have full confidence”.
Battle for control
Zuma has shown little sign of moving economic policy to the left as demanded by the unions and communists who backed his candidacy.
Cosatu and the ANC are also at loggerheads over inflation-targeting and corruption in government contracts.
Analysts said the ANC’s strong rebuke of its labour ally indicated a battle for control of policy and influence.
“This is undoubtedly the strongest comment the ANC has made,” said independent political analyst Nick Borain.
“I don’t think that this means a divorce is imminent, there have been many public squabbles going on for a long, long time now. The ANC is responding to the growing conflict, but I do think the situation is escalating”.
Cosatu, which has nearly two million paid-up members, has threatened a national strike before October over big electricity price increases granted to power utility Eskom, and could not say if the industrial action could take place before or during the Soccer World Cup, to be hosted by South Africa in June. – Sapa