Cosatu urges unity as ANC and SACP clash over election breakaway

Cosatu has vowed to preserve the tripartite alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) after a two-day central executive committee (CEC) meeting, even as tensions rise over the SACP’s decision to contest the November local government elections independently.

Rift between ANC and SACP

Senior leaders of the ANC and the SACP have been trading public verbal blows, and both parties are targeting similar constituencies, creating a risk of dividing alliance members at the ballot box. The SACP has said it will field candidates separately and has shown no signs of cooperating with the ANC in post-election coalitions. The party’s leadership has long opposed what it describes as the ANC’s neoliberal policies and has rejected the ANC’s embrace of the Democratic Alliance in the government of national unity.

Cosatu presses for unity

Cosatu said it wants to preserve alliance unity and will continue engaging its partners. In a post-CEC statement the federation said:

“The federation will continue engaging its partners and will intensify its efforts to convene the alliance and develop a common programme before and after the local government elections.”

The federation also expressed frustration at the failure to convene the alliance political council and a summit despite repeated calls. The CEC warned that the current challenges confronting the alliance could not be postponed indefinitely.

Cosatu’s internal challenges

Cosatu is confronting a decline in membership, which the CEC said has fallen from nearly three million in 2012 to about 1.5 million. The federation attributed the drop to a range of factors, including the rise of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, retrenchments across the economy and a growing disinterest in unionism as workers turn to alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms.

On the membership decline Cosatu was blunt:

“This cannot be treated as a statistical problem. It represents a weakening of the organised power of workers at a time when employers are intensifying attacks on collective bargaining, employment security and workers’ rights.”

What happens next

Cosatu said it will intensify efforts to convene the alliance and develop a common programme both before and after the local government elections, signalling an ongoing push to repair relations within the tripartite formation.