The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) believes the public humiliation ANC national chair Gwede Mantashe suffered at the Cosatu congress last week was deliberate and planned ahead of time.
Speaking at the teachers' union national general council on Tuesday, Sadtu president Magope Maphila said he was of the view that Mantashe being driven off stage by irate federation members and delegates of the conference was deliberate.
"Because of what happened in Rustenburg in the May [on] Worker’s Day [when President Cyril Ramaphosa was prevented from addressing a rally], it was asked in the central committee whether it was relevant to invite the ANC because [you] can’t invite a fellow alliance partner only to embarrass them.
"We were told all is well, only for ANC to be embarrassed. When ANC [was] meant to speak, well printed placards emerged. We’re of the view, it was not an accident but something well-planned," he said.
Last Monday, during day one of the 14th national congress of Cosatu, Mantashe was heckled off stage by delegates who refused to allow him to speak.
While he, at first looked resolute to address them, he was eventually defeated by the loud heckling with delegates singing "Hamba. Hamba Gwede. Hamba."
Gwede returned on day two of the congress only to be told there was a decision taken for the ANC not to address the congress.
Referring to this, Maphila cricitised Cosatu for not allowing an invited guest to speak at the congress.
"It’s always proper to allow the other voice. You can’t listen to yourself. In our view, the ANC should’ve been given an opportunity to respond to the so-called anger at that congress. The congress was hijacked to what it was not meant to be. Moving forward, we’re going to find it tough, even as labour when invited to ANC events. When ANC does that to us we must not cry foul because we fired the first shot," he said.
Cosatu also spent the majority of the final day of their congress debating whether to throw their support behind the SACP which, during the congress, had stated its readiness to contest elections, or continue with the ANC for the 2024 general elections.
Maphila said this was taken to a vote with the majority abstaining.
"About 788 delegates voted through and 1,066 delegates did not vote. You can’t have 788 deciding for 1,066 voting delegates."
Maphila told delegates at the NGC on Tuesday not to concern themselves with ANC members jostling for power ahead of the national conference in December.
"[Those] people are looking out for themselves rather than the working class. How many times do we as workers care about the 12.5 million unemployed people in country? What are we practically doing by those who want to access work but nothing is happening for them?"
Ramaphosa is expected to address day one of the NGC that has 250 delegates held at Emperor’s Palace, Johannesburg.
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