The African National Congress’s (ANC) criticism of the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Coastu) civil society conference was not motivated by paranoia, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday.
“Reality informs our perceptions, not paranoia,” Mantashe said, speaking at a gathering hosted by the Daily Maverick in Sandton.
“The issue is that the ANC has a relationship with Cosatu,” Mantashe said, as Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi sat in the audience.
“Therefore, if you are going to flirt with other people, you talk to your alliance partners, so that there are no suspicions.”
By “other people” Mantashe was referring to civil society organisations with which Cosatu held a conference last week. Neither ANC nor government representatives were invited.
Cosatu: The ANC being ‘paranoid’
At an ANC press briefing following the conference, the party cautioned Cosatu about attempting to effect regime change in South Africa. Vavi then said the ruling party was being “paranoid”.
Mantashe denied this, saying there were “living examples” of civil society organisations being funded to oppose liberation movements, for example, Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
There were also civil society organisations in South Africa who were hostile toward the ruling party.
The issue was, Mantashe said, that Cosatu had “flirted” with these groups, without informing its allies.
A war of words erupted over the conference with civil society groups. Section27 and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) lashed out at the ANC, saying its paranoia reflected that of former president Thabo Mbeki.
Cosatu is not starting a new party
Vavi on Thursday said the conference was about giving the voiceless and marginalised “a powerful but peaceful vehicle to bring about change.”
“The poor are already getting restless,” he told the same gathering.
The conference could “revive the spirit of the mass democratic movement” which played a crucial role, along with the ANC, in fighting apartheid.
“There is absolutely no truth in the accusation that Cosatu is trying to set up a new party. We are not creating a coalition in opposition to the ANC government.”
Rather, he said, Cosatu wanted to work with government to breathe life into the ANC’s election slogan, “together we can do more”.
Cosatu is not government’s ‘labourdesk’
He added, however, that Cosatu was not a government “labour desk”. It was an independent organisation governed by its own constitution.
“Our relationship with the government is contradictory in the sense that we support it and praise it strongly when it takes the interests of the poor forward and condemn it strongly when it acts only in the interests of the powerful vested interest of the elite. This we will continue to do, irrespective of whether someone out there has a thin skin or not,” he said.
“We won’t seek permission from anybody to advance our class interests.”
Cosatu remained committed to its alliance with the ANC, South African Communist Party (SACP) and the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco), he said.
No copy-cat movement
The ANC was “perhaps the most heavily contested organisation in the world”, Vavi said, with many groupings jostling to mould it to their liking.
“Every grouping wants to see it in its own image… the hyenas want the ANC to look like them.”
Mantashe agreed with this saying, however, that the ANC’s responsibility was to ensure that the party did not end up “looking like any of them.”
It was a “multi-class liberation movement”, he said.
Cosatu in Mpumalanga on Thursday said the ANC’s response to the conference was evidence that South Africa was sliding “toward a predator state”.
“… where a parasitic elite abuses state power and resources to satisfy their personal greed and crass materialistic interests, where the predatory elite subjects society to the politics of fear, political bondage and subjugation,” said provincial secretary Fidel Mlombo.
Numsa throws its weight behind Vavi
Cosatu members were fully behind Vavi as he attempted to address the glaring inequalities in the country, he said.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) also came out in Vavi’s support, saying it was “disturbed” by the ANC NWC’s reaction to the conference.
“… if the ANC really believes its own soap opera then the entire Cosatu leadership and its membership must be charged with treason to overthrow the democratically elected government. Such is the seriousness of the ANC’s allegation against Cosatu,” Numsa said in a statement.
The union said Cosatu would continue to garner support for the ANC during the local government elections next year, but not with a “blank cheque”.
“The ANC must relax. Rather than accusing Cosatu of plotting to unseat the ANC government, the ANC must think how best it can connect with the concerns raised by the civil society conference and then proceed to see how government can use this social power for the good of all South Africans.” — Sapa