Durban - Numsa has renegades who have organised themselves as a faction within trade union federation Cosatu, the SA Communist Party in KwaZulu-Natal said on Thursday.
“The provincial executive committee (PEC) has reflected on the sustained attack on our government, the alliance and the SACP in particular,” the party said in a statement following a PEC meeting that ended on Tuesday.
“These attacks are, by among others, some renegade elements, most of them found among Numsa, and have become an organised faction within Cosatu.”
The SACP would defend itself against such attacks, it said.
“The most worrying tendency that has festered within this organised faction is the tribal and regional mobilisation of its members in pursuing this anti-Cosatu and anti-alliance agenda.”
The party said it was happy that the majority of Congress of SA Trade Unions members, including National Union of Metalworkers of SA members, were beginning to see “the bigger agenda” under which they were being mobilised.
Numsa is holding a four-day special national congress that started in Boksburg, on the East Rand, on Tuesday.
The SACP and Numsa have been at loggerheads over the union's outspoken criticism of the African National Congress and Cosatu.
On Tuesday, Numsa said it had invited the SACP to its congress but that the party had decided not to attend. The SACP denied this on Wednesday, saying it had not received an invitation.
The party also condemned the booing of President Jacob Zuma during the memorial service for former president Nelson Mandela at FNB stadium in Soweto last week.
Some of those who booed Zuma wore ANC T-shirts, the SACP said.
“This is a foreign culture to the ANC. We recognise that this shocking new culture has been nurtured for some time now to fester with previous booing of leaders.”
The party had confidence in Zuma's leadership and would work hard to achieve a 70 percent election victory in KwaZulu-Natal next year.
“We are very much part of all the phases of the ANC campaign. We will intensify our campaign in rural areas, workers and the youth,” it said.
Sapa