The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), Cosatu’s largest affiliate, which was among the unions calling for the labour federation to dump the ANC and support the SACP in the 2024 general election, has made a U-turn and says it will now use its structures to campaign for an “outright majority victory” for the ANC.
Cosatu and the SACP, as members of the ANC-led tripartite alliance, have traditionally supported the ANC during elections, using their grassroots structures to campaign for the party. However, over the years relations between the alliance partners have come under strain, primarily because of the ANC’s poor performance in government and its lackadaisical approach in dealing with service delivery, corruption and malfeasance in the public service.
As a result, the ANC — which is dogged by a slew of governance, financial, operational and administrative challenges — is facing the real prospect of losing its electoral majority in the national and provincial elections in 2024, according to several polls, including one by the ANC itself.
Nehawu held a meeting of its central executive committee, its highest decision-making body between congresses, last Wednesday to Friday at which the decision to rally behind the cash-strapped governing party was taken.
In a media briefing on Monday, Nehawu deputy general secretary December Mavuso said the union’s new position is meant to defend “the gains of our revolution by aligning with Cosatu and the SACP in campaigning for an outright majority victory for the ANC in the 2024 national elections”.
At its national congress in Midrand in September 2022, Cosatu’s largest affiliates including Nehawu, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, the SA Municipal Workers Union and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA, called for the labour federation to immediately dump the ANC and support the SACP in the 2024 elections.
The four unions, accounting for more than 600,000 of Cosatu’s estimated membership of 1.6-million, had accused the governing party of undermining workers and failing to implement alliance programmes. Differences between the alliance partners remain unresolved.
The bad blood between the alliance partners was evident at the Midrand congress in 2022. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was scheduled to address the congress, pulled out at the 11th hour and was replaced by ANC national chair Gwede Mantashe, who was booed and prevented from speaking.
Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi, a close Ramaphosa ally, was among a few leaders who called on delegates to defend the ANC, which she said remains the best vehicle to advance workers’ struggles.
On Monday, Nehawu second deputy president Babsy Makhafane denied its central committee decision to campaign for the ANC was a betrayal of the 277,000 members who made the call at the Midrand congress. The union has consulted its membership “extensively” on the matter before the decision was reached, he said.
Mavuso said the organised working class could not fold its arms and watch a “fraudulent right-wing takeover” unfold through the Multiparty Charter for SA, which he described as an “elite power grab arrangement”. A number of opposition political parties including the DA, ActionSA, the IFP and Freedom Front Plus have entered into a pre-election coalition agreement aimed at ousting the ANC from power.
“Our key message is that for us the SACP is our choice as the vanguard of the working class and the ANC is our option in this coming election, as the leading component of the alliance,” said Mavuso.
“Therefore, we shall spare no available resources in making our contribution to ensure the defeat of these counterrevolutionary forces and their imperialist sponsors.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.