Siyabonga Sithole
Regional leaders of the Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) and South African Communist Party (SACP) who form part of the ANC tripartite alliance gave their messages of support to the 15th Greater Johannesburg regional conference ahead of the adoption of credentials set to take place later this afternoon.
Cosatu and the SAPC gave a candid assessment of the fractious relationship between the alliance in the past five years.
Cosatu's regional chairperson in Johannesburg, Mike Mongwe called on the ANC to ensure inclusion of women and the youth in the structures of the party as part of its renewal.
Mongwe said the recent booing of ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 1 May Cosatu rally at Royal Bafokeng stadium was a sign of how frustrated workers are with the current ANC stance on pro poor policies which the ruling party has not addressed convincingly.
“As Cosatu our observation is that few has been achieved in resolving the issues faced by the working class. We have observed that in the branches of ANC there are very few branches that are led by young people and few by women and none are led by a disabled people. None of the ANC branches are led by workers. What could be the cause of this, our analysis as a Marxist organisation is that, there is lack of passion by the ANC, by ANC structures,” said Mongwe.
He said that they have also taken note of the gatekeeping and grandstanding by the ANC against the working class by neo-liberal policies.
“ As long as we continue not to accommodate others, we are making our movement irrelevant when it comes to achieving non-racialism and equality,” he added
Mongwe also warned the ANC against the increasing food and fuel hikes which have further kept the working class in a tailspin on the back of stagnant and unfulfilled salary increases and promises to improve the lives of the workers and ordinary South Africans.
“More importantly when we build the structure of the ANC, we want a party to take note that the ANC must drive job creation and not an agenda of joblessness. We are saying the ANC government is our government and government of workers but current conditions tell us that workers are suffering worse pain and our cries are falling on deaf ears,” cautioned Mongwe
However, Mongwe said in spite of these challenges faced by the working class, they were still confident that the ANC can emerge stronger and take up the fight for the working class as they continue to support the ruling party in its endeavor to forge a stronger and more United ANC going forward.
“We are not in control and our cries are falling on deaf deed ears. We have said to the ANC lead us and we are still saying this. There have been retrenchments across government departments that have failed the insourcing of workers with many state owned entities being unbundled to serve capitalistic interests.
We need the ANC to elect principled and dedicated leaders. We do not condone empty promises but want strong and principled leaders to emerge from this conference. We do not want leaders who are here to discuss positions but leaders who are interested in discussing policies and building alliance structure,” Mongwe added.
SACP district treasurer, Enos Sithole said the current neo liberal policies adopted by the ruling party were not serving the interests of the people but of capital interests instead of the poor people of this country.
“ We are meeting today when capitalism is in crisis and amid an imperialist war being staged in Ukraine. This has contributed to the rise of fuel and food prices which in turn is a clear indication that capitalism is not sustainable and not in the interests of the working class and the poor.
The protest by the working class is a clear indication that liberal policies are not working. They are not sustaining us. We are of view as that these policies are going to dislodge ANC from government if they are not addressed
Sithole said that when police stations do not have resources or teachers are reduced, people blame the ANC because of these austerity and neo- liberal police.
“ We have always said to workers negotiations are won in terms of policies and local government(elections) clearly show that we are losing popular power in Johannesburg which is a capital hub of the country's economy,” Sithole said.