Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Monday agreed with President Jacob Zuma’s assessment that the tripartite alliance was in crisis.
“I agree with the president,” he said on the sidelines of the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) central committee meeting in Midrand.
In his secretariat report, to be delivered to delegates on Tuesday, Vavi described the past three and a half years as “probably … the most dynamic and volatile” in South African politics.
He said a “powerful, corrupt, predatory elite combined with a conservative populist agenda to harness the ANC to advance their interests” had emerged during this period.
He also referred to the development of “political paralysis” in the state and the ANC’s alliance with Cosatu and the SA Communist Party.
“In other words, we have seen intensification of ongoing contestation within the alliance, the ANC and the state, unfolding deepening contradictions, and wild zig-zagging in the political direction of the country,” Vavi said in the report.
Crisis
On Monday, Zuma said the ruling party and the alliance were in a state of crisis characterised by a lack of respect and ill-discipline, with members no longer discussing important issues in meetings, but shouting at each other in public.
“This has introduced a tendency to determine policy on our feet, having not gone through the proper process that would normally help to maintain the dignity of the organisation,” he said.
He did not make specific reference to a push for nationalisation of the mines and land reform by ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, but these are issues that the youth league has been especially vocal about, putting them at the top of their agenda at their recent national congress.
Zuma did say, however, that land reform must take place, conceding that the “willing buyer, willing seller” policy had not yielded the desired result. But he said this must be done in accordance with the Constitution.
“Land reform is urgent but requires careful handling and consultation, and must be conducted within the confines of the Constitution of the Republic,” he told delegates.
Malema sparked an outcry recently when he called for land redistribution without compensation. The ANC moved to quell fears of Zimbabwe-style land grabs, saying ANCYL resolutions did not alter ANC policies being implemented at government level.
Leadership matters
In the secretariat report, Vavi said Cosatu would assess the ANC’s leadership during the four-day meeting, but would not pronounce on the matter as this was “not appropriate”. He said Cosatu had made a “mistake” in focusing on the ANC’s top six leaders at its last elective conference and leaving the national executive committee (NEC) — the ANC’s top decision-making body — “for others to decide on”.
He said Zuma and ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe should be defended when the ANC elected new leaders in 2012. The ANCYL wants them replaced. “Currently, the only people running a campaign for the removal of the two are the elements of the new class of tenderpreneurs. “If they succeed in this campaign, the ANC as we have known it will be history.”
The secretariat warned that there was a risk that “the very country will be sold to the highest bidder”.
“Anything which is done by these comrades [Zuma and Mantashe] or ourselves to deepen their vulnerability to attack must be avoided.”
It also warned that this faction could retain Zuma, but surround him with a “right-wing NEC to corrode his political support base” and “ultimately pull the carpet from under his feet”.
It criticised the ANC’s current leadership for committing mistakes which had made it “difficult for Cosatu to effectively mobilise support of its constituency”.
“Some actions by the ANC leadership have tended to discredit itself and have unnecessarily placed itself in opposition to Cosatu.” — Sapa