Johannesburg - Anarchy within Cosatu should not be rewarded, SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said on Saturday.
“There can never be unity between revolutionaries and [those who are] counter-revolutionary,” Nzimande told a National Union of Mineworkers' shop stewards' council in Boksburg, on the East Rand.
“As the SA Communist Party, we support all efforts to unite Cosatu, but not reward anarchy.”
He said any attack on the NUM was an attack on the Congress of SA Trade Unions and the tripartite alliance.
The biggest disruption causing a rift within the alliance came from inside trade union federation.
“The unity of Cosatu has to be preserved. Those who try to distract it were not there when it was built,” he said.
“When you want to destroy the the unity of the federation, who will benefit? It won't benefit the workers, but the bosses.”
He urged members to be loyal to the African National Congress and vote for them at the May 7 general election.
An ANC task team this week intervened to try and diffuse tensions within Cosatu.
Cosatu's largest affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, has been at loggerheads with the trade union federation after the suspension of general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi eight months ago.
Vavi was suspended from Cosatu for having an affair with a junior employee.
Numsa opposed Vavi's suspension and was successful in its application to the High Court in Johannesburg challenging the decision.
Vavi returned to work on Monday.
Numsa has also gone against Cosatu in deciding not to support the ANC in this year's general election and calling for a Cosatu special national congress so that new leadership could be elected.
The ANC task team recommended that Cosatu's special central executive committee (CEC) meeting be postponed to allow the ruling party to restore unity within its structures.
The CEC was meant to deal with issues relating to Vavi and hear Numsa's reasons why it should not be suspended or expelled.
Nzimande on Saturday described the Democratic Alliance as a racist party and the Economic Freedom Fighters as a party full of “corrupt tenderpreneurs”, saying they must be taught a lesson. - Sapa