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Cosatu has expressed concern over ongoing factional battles in the governing party, allegations of vote buying by the CR17 campaign going into the party’s 54th elective conference in 2017 and the rise in political killings in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.
These apprehensions were raised by the trade union’s central executive committee that sat this week.
Giving details on the resolutions reached at the meeting, deputy general secretary Solly Phetoe said that “the [executive committee] expressed concerns about the political killings in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, and is calling on law enforcement agencies to do their work”.
At a media briefing held at the union’s Braamfontein offices on Thursday Phetoe also said that Cosatu was “worried by the ongoing factionalism in the ANC” He called on the leadership to “focus on a programme of action to rebuild the ANC and restore unity and cohesion within the movement”.
He said if the governing party heeded Cosatu’s advice, public confidence and hope would be restored among the country’s masses.
Chief among what Cosatu thought should be addressed was the matter of leaders publicly attacking each other, an occurrence that has become the norm within the party’s ranks particularly on social media platforms.
“Leaders need to stop the unconstructive public attacks on each other because they are not helping. South Africans are crying for leadership, not political theatre,” said Phetoe.
The trade union said that although it had noted “attempts to scandalise the concept of fund raising by the CR17 campaign”, its executive committee “agrees that the ANC does need to confront the culture of money and vote-buying in its conferences at all levels”.
He said people were right to be worried about the possibility of influence peddled by funders since this had been the case under the previous administration, with the Gupta family seeking to capture the state.
Phetoe said this behaviour of vote buying was creating a toxic political culture and destroying the moral fibre and political discipline expected of government.
Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi expressed her union’s frustration over its attempts to engage the governing party.
She said there were certain processes that had to be undertaken before the alliance partners could sit and discuss burning issues. However, the ANC had in recent times not honoured scheduled engagements.
