The Cosatu conference has followed the same script as in the past. Workers raised their voices in anger against their tripartite alliance partner and governing party, the ANC.
Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi assured them as imperfect as the ANC was, it was the best bet for helping Cosatu achieve its objectives.
Cracks in the tripartite alliance were laid bare during the Cosatu national congress, with ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe not allowed to address the conference.
Pundits and anyone who has followed Cosatu over most of SA’s democracy would have heard a tinge of a sequel hearing Mantashe say the ANC was served with divorce papers. Cosatu has done so in the past.
In fact, if President Cyril Ramaphosa had gone to the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, where Cosatu is holding its conference, he would have joined his predecessors, except for Nelson Mandela, as the ANC leaders were heckled by Cosatu shop stewards angry that the state has taken a path different to the expectations of workers.
In 2008, former Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi called on then president Thabo Mbeki and his entire cabinet to fire themselves for ignoring Eskom’s warning in the late 1990s of impending power shortages.
Former president Jacob Zuma felt Cosatu’s ire at a May Day rally in 2017. At this year’s May Day rally in Rustenburg, workers heckled Ramaphosa off stage.
Pundits then, like Mantashe yesterday, said the latest development might be the last straw which could break the alliance.
Mantashe was referring to a speech delivered moments earlier by SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila, who told the more than 1,800 congress delegates that the ground was shifting, and not in favour of the ANC. He said the SACP was ready to contest the 2024 elections.
On Monday, Mantashe was publicly humiliated when workers outright refused to allow him to address the congress. However, this didn’t stop him from returning on day two.
It was hours after proceedings started that Mantashe conceded defeat and, accompanied by the ANC coordinator in the secretary-general’s office, he finally decided to leave.
Speaking on the sidelines of the congress, he said the ANC needed to accept that the Cosatu delegates did not want to be addressed by the ANC.
“Delegates of the conference didn’t want us to talk to them. We must humbly accept that. It’s not the end of the road. I also took note of the issues raised by the communist party and we whispered there, saying why does the communist party serve divorce papers in public? They must send those divorce papers to us to read.
“I’m leaving. I’m not going to address them. I will not be here tomorrow. I was here yesterday. I was here today. The ANC has spoken to the leadership of Cosatu that some of us are leaving. We must go to work that will add value, rather than sitting here and internalising…
“We appreciate that we’ve grown to be objects of abuse everywhere we go. We’ve accepted that, but it’s also an important exercise that when you’re an object of abuse you manage that by not causing a scene and appreciate the fact that you as the organisation did what you had to... to keep the organisation intact,” he said.
Mantashe accused the delegates of displaying immaturity, saying their refusal to allow the ANC to speak as invited guests was “immature”. “They are immature. We will allow everybody to speak in our conference because we are mature.”
In keeping with the tradition, the SACP also threatened they were ready to leave the alliance.
Mapaila had said earlier: “There have been questions about whether the SACP is ready to contest elections. Let me put it in simple words. The SACP is ready. Any other thing is a matter of engagement. We’re not isolationist. We are working within [the] revolutionary agenda.
“The working class has to contest the ANC. Criminals are now contesting the ANC. How can criminals be better than revolutionaries. We should not be sucked into ANC factions as a class. Even the situation we face today has to build maximum unity. Workers must not be nice to government when they renege on [an] agreed framework.”
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