Africa-Press – South-Africa. The heckling and berating of an ANC delegation led by national chairperson Gwede Mantashe at Cosatu’s elective congress last week was a planned move orchestrated by some of its disgruntled affiliates.
The trade union federation’s central executive committee (CEC) also failed to pre-empt the incident, despite concerns being raised by some of its affiliates.
So said the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), the largest trade union for teachers in South Africa and a Cosatu affiliate.
Its president, Magope Maphila, made the claims while delivering his opening address at the start of Sadtu’s two-day national general council meeting at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park on Tuesday.
Maphila said last week’s congress “was hijacked by some for what it was not supposed to be”.
Exposing the divisions within the trade union federation, he added he and other affiliate leaders had questioned Cosatu’s CEC over whether the scenes that marred a Worker’s Day event in May, where President Cyril Ramaphosa was booed off the stage and not allowed to address the gathering, would be repeated.
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“The conveners of that congress are the CEC, and because of what happened in Rustenburg during the May Day worker’s rally, the CEC was asked if it was still relevant or proper for us to invite the ANC.
“You can’t invite a fellow alliance partner only to embarrass them, but we were told that all was well, and the ANC should be invited.”
Maphila said much to the union’s dismay, “when the ANC was supposed to speak, placards just emerged from nowhere”.
“They [the placards] were well printed. We are of the view that the disruption of the ANC address was not something that just emerged from nowhere; it was something that was planned.”
His utterances came after Mantashe was booed off the stage on the first day of Cosatu’s 14th national elective congress.
“It’s always proper to allow the other voice; you can’t always listen to yourself. In our considered view, the ANC should have been given an opportunity to respond to the so-called anger of the workers,” said Maphila.
He also revealed when he and other affiliate leaders “tried to come together to say where to from here, we were told of security concerns, and some said their members are angry and the congress could not go ahead”.
Maphila said:
As such, he suggested, Cosatu’s affiliates and alliance partners, the SACP and ANC, had a long way to go in ensuring unity was again forged between the organisations.
“We have to work very hard, comrades, to unite ourselves, especially as the alliance; there are a lot of public spats that are going on, and they are not helpful,” said Maphila.
Further demonstrating a soft spot for the ANC, he went on to bemoan the decision taken at the congress to have a vote on whether the Cosatu should throw its weight behind the SACP or ANC in the 2024 national elections.
“The other issue that divided us was whether we must ditch the ANC in the 2024 elections.
“For some time now, we have agreed that should the SACP take a decision to contest for state power, we will convene a special national congress to review our decision for the support of the ANC.
“For now, we do not do anything either than what our congress had decided that is why now we are year-in and year-out campaigning for a landslide victory for the ANC.
Maphila said:
The decision to hold a secret vote went ahead despite many affiliates having indicated they would not be taking part in the ballot given they had not received a mandate from their members.
Despite his continued vote of confidence in the ANC, Maphila also warned the governing party’s internal factionalism was alienating it from the general public and workers.
He said what was dominating the current internal contestation leading up to the party’s elective conference in December was “a jostling for the share of the pie and not deep concern for citizens”.
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