Johannesburg - The battle to succeed President Jacob Zuma seems to have begun in earnest, as Cosatu leaders defy ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe’s plea for unity while the SACP is preparing to influence the ANC’s leadership in 2017.
The Sunday Independent is in possession of a political report in which the SACP says it needs to shape the leadership of the ANC in the next four years.
Zuma is not obliged to step down as party leader after two terms.
The communists also chastised the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) for threatening to break away from Cosatu and the ANC-led alliance and dissuading members from voting for the ruling party.
The SACP has accused Numsa of flirting with rival unions and Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters party.
“The dominant tendency within the leadership of Numsa is firmly rooted in business unionism hence its links with EFF, backed by an old existing ‘workerist’ tendency working closely with formations like Workers and Socialist Party(Wasp).
“The latter sees an opportunity to achieve both inside and outside Numsa what it has always wanted to achieve – to drive a wedge between Cosatu and the ANC/SACP,” the report says.
“But even more dangerous is that all these elements are showing a willingness to work towards a worker coalition with the National Council of Trade Unions, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union and other splinters from Cosatu unions, including disgruntled elements within the federation.
“Whilst these trends do not share the same political strategy or political goals, their interests converge around either capturing Cosatu or splintering from it using Numsa as a nucleus of the alternative federation,” the report adds.
The report also accuses Numsa of trying to turn Cosatu into an independent “civil society” organisation.
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said the SACP had run out of ideas and failed the working class in South Africa.
“The challenge for the SACP of Nzimande is that they must explain to victims of capitalism what their plan is to overthrow capitalism. Because they don’t have a plan they are analysing working class formations,” he said.
Jim charged that Numsa would not be blackmailed from debating the formation of an independent workers party. “We don’t need Blade’s permission for that,” he said.
On the other hand, Cosatu senior leaders are unhappy with Mantashe for cautioning that pursuing the suspended Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi at all costs was not worth it.
The federation leaders – who spoke on condition on anonymity – privately accuse Mantashe of trying to save Vavi so that the latter can campaign for him for the deputy presidency of the ruling party in 2017.
Transport union Satawu said, in direct defiance of Mantashe’s plea for unity, that the investigations into Vavi’s conduct should continue.
Satawu general secretary Zenzo Mahlangu said no one was “pursuing Vavi… If ever there should be peace, it must be through a process”.
“We don’t believe there should be blanket amnesty. If there are issues that require disciplinary (action), they must take place, irrespective of who is involved. We must make sure that we put the organisation first. Leaders will come and go,” Mahlangu said.
Vavi is facing disciplinary charges for reportedly sleeping with a junior employee at work, but Numsa believes he was targeted for criticising the ANC and SACP.
A Cosatu senior leader said Mantashe located himself into Vavi’s faction.
“Gwede messed up here. He made a mistake (through) his statement.
A Cosatu senior leader said Mantashe located himself into Vavi’s faction.
“Gwede messed up here. He made a mistake (through) his statement. Comrades are saying that if Vavi survives, Gwede would have helped him. This would also mean that Vavi would support him for deputy presidency,” he said.
“Gwede has caused problems. The intervention of the ANC will be treated with suspicion,” he added.
A senior leader of the National Union of Mineworkers said Vavi had to be disciplined.
“What we need to do is to win over his supporters first. But we are not retreating. We must finish all the disciplinary processes, otherwise we are going to have a problem of people thinking they are the federation,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
“The other problem of dropping the charges against him is that he is going to come back with a vengeance and start to purge people,” he added.
Mantashe denied there was unhappiness with his comments in Cosatu. “You are imagining unhappiness,” he said.
Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini said: “We understand the SG’s comments (Mantashe) to be cautioning all groupings in Cosatu… that whatever they do, the federation should not split whilst they are pursuing their different interests,” he said.
The ANC has set up a task team led by its deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa to quell the feud in Cosatu. Mantashe is also part of the team. An ANC leader with intimate knowledge of the task team supported Mantashe, saying the current disunity in the alliance, particularly in Cosatu, was disastrous for the ruling party four months before the elections.
However, it seems factions in Cosatu and the SACP are focussed on the ANC succession in 2017.
“Between 2014 and 2021, the year 2017 becomes very significant in the wake of our own 14th congress and the 54th congress of the ANC. In both the congresses, it is likely there will be significant changes in the leadership across our alliance structures, thus laying a basis for a different leadership of government after 2019 elections,” the SACP states in its report.
The SACP, which has been the bulwark of Zuma’s support system, concludes the meeting of its central committee – its highest decision-making body between elective conferences – today.
Interestingly, the SACP wants to dissuade Cosatu from campaigning against e-tolls (see page 2).
SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo did not want to comment on the report.
Mantashe refused to comment on the SACP report.
Sunday Independent