The question of where the “strategic centre of power” was in the tripartite alliance is still upsetting the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
General secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Wednesday the union was “unsatisfied” with the way the issue had been dealt with at the African National Congress’s national general council last month.
“Cosatu has never questioned the role of the ANC as a leader of the alliance and as a centre of power on its own, but it is mischievous and contradictory to argue that the alliance, which has the ANC at its helm, is not in itself a strategic political centre of power,” he told a meeting of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg.
Vavi has in the past described the alliance with the ANC and the South African Communist Party as “dysfunctional” due to confusion over power.
Cosatu wants the alliance to be the “strategic centre of power”, while the ANC has long claimed this was its role.
“While we agree that our alliance with the ANC and SACP is one that has matured through age and in the terrain of struggle, we are nonetheless concerned about those who seek to brandish quotes about the alliance not being a paper alliance in order to justify the sidelining of alliance components in a number of areas,” Vavi said.
He also noted the success of the NGC and the defeat of “tenderpreneurs”, politicians who use their positions to get government contracts, at the gathering held in Durban last month.
Single public-sector union
Vavi also called for the creation of a single public-sector union.
“The overriding lesson from this strike is the urgent need to create a single public sector union that will have specialised units for all the professions that exist in the public service,” said Vavi.
He urged Sadtu to ensure that a unified education sector union was part of their discussions.
“The next step is to ensure that you merge with all other teacher organisations in the country.”
He said the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) and South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) had long threatened to “marry” and this had to happen soon.
“It will be in our best interests to push for unity,” he said.
Currently, getting things done in the bargaining council was a “nightmare”, and “aggressive egos” did not help.
He said union leadership wanted to be on television to be seen by their members.
“We can’t be presidents, all of us, comrades, it’s not possible.
“Division is a luxury that we cannot afford.
“This is the overriding lesson or message of the strike.”
The recent public-sector strike saw the relationship between labour and government turn sour.
‘Not worried about poverty’
Government also came under fire from Sadtu president Thobile Ntola at the meeting, who labelled it as “nationalists” concerned only with “classifying information”.
“Its [government’s] priority is the classification and declassification of information,” he said.
“They are not worried about poverty … they are worried about hiding information about tenders … they are worried about the fact that the media will expose all these things so they must be gagged.”
Ntola also took a hard line on calls in the ANC for disciplinary action to be taken against alliance leaders.
“We must vow that no leader of the communist party or no leader of Cosatu speaking on behalf of their organisations will then be taken to the disciplinary committee of the ANC.
“Over our dead bodies,” he said.
This followed calls by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema for disciplinary action to be taken against Vavi over remarks he made about the danger of “political hyenas”.
Ntola urged delegates to swell the ranks of the SACP because it was clear that this government was “not desperate for socialism”.
The SACP must be strengthened so that socialism could be realised “in our lifetime”, he said.
Ntola told delegates they should be the “change agents” and not become corrupt themselves when they joined the ANC.
He criticised government’s stance on education, saying: “Education was declared a priority by the current administration … this is just a public relations stunt.”
Ntola also chastised teachers, saying their main priority had to be to teach and to teach well.
“We can’t be champions of only strikes for salaries and not for teaching and learning.
“All is not well if you don’t teach.”
Ntola said teachers must master the art of teaching effectively and fighting for socialism at the same time in the next five years. – Sapa