Johannesburg - Cosatu on Thursday afternoon has started nominations ahead of the election of its Gauteng leaders at its two-day provincial congress at The Lakes Hotel in Benoni, Ekurhuleni.
The congress, which is Cosatu’s last provincial congress after nine other similar gatherings, is expected to elect the new leadership as Cosatu gears for its national congress later this year.
Cosatu’s first deputy president Mike Shingange has called on the provincial congress to resolve to go to the federation’s back to basics programme.
”One of the problems is that affiliates that go through the federation, we have lost the culture of mandate-taking and report-giving. We have created a gap between ourselves as leaders and membership to the point where we are frustrated as leaders and we think we must fight. Members don’t know why we are angry and they can’t join us in our fights,” he said.
Cosatu’s Gauteng provincial congress will end on Friday.
At some of its congresses across the nine provinces, Cosatu’s structures have pronounced on the upcoming ANC national and provincial conferences.
In Limpopo, Cosatu Congress has urged vigilance at the ANC provincial conference scheduled for June 2022. In intensifying the programme of renewal and unity of the governing party, he has called on members to refrain from supporting individuals who are tainted by corruption allegations for election into the provincial executive committee.
Cosatu in Limpopo also has reaffirmed its commitment to work tirelessly to protect the gains of Nasrec conference in 2017 where President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected party leader.
The federation has said it will achieve this by strengthening working class-progressive perspectives and assist the ANC and other mass democratic formations within the context of a reconfigured tripartite alliance.
”Congress noted with dismay the inability of the people’s movement to provide strategic political direction and leadership to the broader forces of change due to entrenched factionalism, corruption, internal divisions and outright ill-discipline from its leaders hell bent on ensuring that unity, renewal and rejuvenation of the movement will not see the light of the day. This is so in order to protect state capture, corruption and looting,” Cosatu in Limpopo said.
Political Bureau