Cosatu came out guns blazing at the national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla of its key ally, the ANC, at the weekend, saying the party is in a mess, dying and faces the real prospect of losing power in the 2024 election.
In her speech during the lekgotla on Saturday, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said the party’s performance during the municipal elections was not a surprise. “It was expected, given an unemployment rate of 44%, rampant corruption and deteriorating public services.
“What have we done to turn the tide, to correct our mistakes?” Losi asked. “If we continue on this road we must accept that we will lose the 2024 elections.”
The labour federation also took a swipe at tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu after her attacks on the constitution and black judges, saying the ANC’s failure to discipline deployees is feeding a culture of mediocrity and only bold action can save it.
Cosatu’s views of the ANC are an indictment of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership, especially when the ANC is due to elect new leaders in December and Ramaphosa is expected to stand for a second term.
Cosatu’s forthrightness could force the ANC to tackle some of its challenges as the party has depended on the federation’s grass-roots structures to win elections since 1994.
The governing party has been dogged by operational, administrative and financial challenges that have seen it fail to pay its employees for months on end. In 2021’s local government elections, it suffered its worst performance since 1994, with national support falling below 50% for the first time.
On the Sisulu debacle, Losi said the party deployed its members to represent the movement in the government, not themselves. “Their mandate is the ANC’s election manifesto. Yet we are now subject to people who swore an oath to defend the constitution running to the media to rubbish the very constitution this movement of Madiba drafted,” she said.
“It is unacceptable and unbecoming for senior leaders and cabinet members to attack the constitution. The failure of the ANC to discipline deployees is feeding a culture of mediocrity.”
In his closing remarks at the lekgotla on Sunday, Ramaphosa said the meeting, which will inform the programmes of action for the ANC and the government for 2022, recognised that “our movement is going through a period of decay and degeneration; the ANC has been able to extricate itself from similar situations in the past.
“It is important not to lower our guard against counter-revolution. The threat to our democratic gains is also a result of an era of loss of moral and ethical principles within the congress movement,” the president said.
Ramaphosa said ANC divisions were becoming a threat to democracy, adding that “regression of ethical and moral leadership has resulted in an existential crisis. Our credibility and legitimacy are being undermined by our inability to act.”
He said economic challenges threatened state security and required urgent interventions from Nedlac.
The alliance is seen to reward and promote those who have been found wanting, Losi said. “If comrades are tired, then they must leave. As we emerge from a decade of state capture we cannot tolerate ANC public representatives publicly attacking our constitution.”
The outcome of the ANC meeting puts pressure on Ramaphosa to act against Sisulu after she publicly defied him, saying he had “misrepresented” a meeting between them when he announced that she had apologised.
On SA’s economic challenges, Cosatu wants every sphere of government and state-owned enterprise to have “job creation and economic growth at the heart of their work”.
Both the public and private sectors need to accelerate the implementation of the economic reconstruction and recovery plan and ramp up local procurement, Losi said. “We need a social compact with government and business where they commit to halting retrenchments and creating jobs.”
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