Cosatu was last night discussing a proposal by the SACP that it should join their bid to contest elections in 2019.
The labour federation’s central executive committee (CEC) meeting discussed the matter after lunch yesterday, a day after a bilateral meeting between the SACP and ANC failed to take place as the alliance partners could not agree on the agenda.
Cosatu Western Cape provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich, speaking to The Star before the SACP proposal was discussed, said: “Only the Cosatu CEC can take a decision on whether to join the SACP in their bid to contest elections in 2019.”
When contacted for comment late yesterday, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla confirmed that political issues were being discussed and that the meeting could go on into the night.
The SACP, at its elective conference in July, took a decision to contest the national election in 2019.
The party has been calling on President Jacob Zuma to step down.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has said that they had agreed to develop a comprehensive agenda, adding that the meeting had to be cancelled to avoid it degenerating into a “mudslinging exercise”.
Cosatu now has to consider how it is going to move forward if the alliance splits following the ANC’s December conference.
It is believed that the communists would want to take Cosatu along with them if former AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma wins the ANC presidency.
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