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ANC must listen to workers to win 2024 elections — Cosatu

Luyolo Mkentane

Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi, a staunch ally of President Cyril Ramaphosa, has warned the ANC that it needs to listen to workers if it wants to win the national general election in 2024.

Losi was re-elected to her position unopposed during Cosatu’s four-day national elective congress which ended on Thursday in Midrand.

Delegates took to the ballot box to vote whether Cosatu should take a decision immediately to dump the ANC and support the SACP in 2024, or whether the matter should be deferred to a national consultative conference in May 2023.

This after some unions rejected a resolution by the general secretaries of Cosatu’s 18 affiliates to convene a special national congress in May 2023 to take a final decision on the matter.

It is not yet clear when the results will be released.

Losi said: “The congress has reaffirmed its support for the SACP, the vanguard party and the need for it to contest elections as part of the advancement of the national democratic revolution. Its voice must be heard loud and clear.”

She said Cosatu would undertake engagements with the SACP “on the modalities of this call in line with the consultation processes adopted by the SACP’s recent national congress”.

ANC chair Gwede Mantashe was booed and prevented from addressing the congress on Monday as workers were angry over the ANC-led government’s refusal to offer above-inflation increases for the country’s more than 1.3-million public servants.

NOT HAPPY

The alliance partners were not happy with the ANC’s track record in government, the unemployment rate, poor service delivery, slow economic growth, nonimplementation of standing wage deals and corruption within the party and government.

Political analysts and ANC leaders have pointed to the possibility of the governing party losing the 2024 elections if it does not tackle service delivery issues and corruption within its ranks.

Meanwhile, Cosatu has called on the government to go back to the negotiating table over implementation of the last leg of the wage deal signed in the public service co-ordinating bargaining council [PSCBC] in 2018.

“We are calling on government to return to the PSCBC and honour the last leg of the 2018 public service wage agreement. Workers will not forgive government until this cancerous tumour is removed from the history of collective bargaining,” Losi said.

Cosatu will no longer accept the undermining of collective bargaining, and the high unemployment rate. “This congress has reaffirmed that this federation remains battle ready and ideologically clear as workers face the greatest challenges of this generation. We cannot normalise a 44% unemployment rate, rising levels of poverty and inequality,” she said.

BEST OPTION

On the first day of the congress on Monday, Losi told Cosatu delegates that the ANC was still the best option to advance workers’ struggles. She called on delegates to defend the governing party.

Cosatu, which has traditionally campaigned and supported the ANC during elections, was the first alliance partner to back Ramaphosa’s campaign for the ANC presidency in 2017.

Losi said Cosatu will remain the “bulwark in defence of a progressive, developmental state

18

Cosatu affiliates put forward a resolution to convene a special national congress in May 2023

2024

the year when ANC may lose its absolute majority in the election

that is biased towards the needs of the working class and the rural poor”.

“The federation will continue to demand government accelerate the war against corruption and state capture, including strengthening the Public Procurement Bill, the banning of politicians from doing business with the state, and tackling tax evasion,” the Cosatu president said.

“Cosatu will ensure the prohibition of municipal employees from holding positions in political parties is scrapped and that similar proposals to infringe upon the constitutional rights of public servants are abandoned. Cosatu remains resolute in support of affiliates, both public and private, in defence of collective bargaining and the right to earn a living wage.”

COSATU WAS THE FIRST ALLIANCE PARTNER TO BACK RAMAPHOSA’S CAMPAIGN

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2022-09-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

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