Pretoria - Cracks have started showing in the ANC’s tripartite alliance and its leagues in the run-up to its 55th national elective conference, expected to be held in Nasrec in December, with members disgruntled with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership.
The long-standing relationship between the ANC, the SACP and Cosatu was dealt a blow last month after the trade union’s assertion at its 14th national congress that it would support the SACP in the 2024 general election. If Cosatu has its way, the SACP and the ANC will for the first time contest each other, putting the Ramaphosa-led ruling party in a tight spot.
At the congress, Ramaphosa’s ally ANC chairperson and Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe, who was meant to give a message of support on behalf of the party, was jeered and booed off stage.
Cosatu and the SACP backed Ramaphosa in 2017 in a desperate move to sever ties with the Jacob Zuma faction led by Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
She was defeated, but the two are again expected to face off in the elective conference in December.
Although Cosatu, the SACP, the ANC Youth League and the ANC Women’s League, including alliance partner the SA National Civic Organisation, could not divulge who they were going to support at the upcoming ANC conference, they seemed to be unhappy with the Ramaphosa-led ANC.
Speaking to the Pretoria News yesterday, Sanco general secretary Richard Mkhungo said they were not entirely happy with Ramaphosa’s presidency.
He said: “We are not happy, but we are not in a position to outline the individual person for the current state of affairs. “For now, we (as Sanco) do not have any position on who we want to become ANC president.
“But as Sanco we are not happy with the manner in which our national liberation movement has performed on a number of service delivery challenges that affect our communities.
“However, our position ... remains that we support the ANC for state power. We remain resolute until our prime structure resolves otherwise.”
The ANC Youth league, which has been dissolved and has since formed a national task team to oversee the formation of a new structure, said some of its members were disgruntled with the mother body’s performance.
Its spokesperson, Sizophila Mkhize, told the Pretoria News they had no position on who to support in December, but called for a youthful national executive committee that could pave the way for Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola, who is expected to contest the deputy president position, and ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe, who is eyeing the treasurer role.
“All our members are supporting different candidates, and it hasn’t been discussed in the formal meeting, so we have no standing positions. But there are different personal opinions of people within the structure.
“A common position, however, is that we want to see a very youthful leadership considering different generations of the league.”
Last week, the ANC Women’s League said it would announce at an appropriate time whom it was going to support.
The SACP said it refused to be drawn into divisive politics and denied assertions it was looking to break away from the ANC.
SACP spokesperson Dr Alex Mashilo said: “The SACP has a principled fraternal stance towards the ANC and its conferences.
The ANC, our long-standing ally, has to renew itself, unite and work together with the SACP and Cosatu to reconfigure the alliance.
“The alliance must lead our shared strategy of struggle and transformation – the national democratic revolution – collectively.
“The 55th national conference of the ANC has to take this direction forward, decisively. This is what the SACP wants to see.
“The SACP has never said it wants to break away from the alliance it has played a leading role to build. But it has said the alliance must be reconfigured to function optimally based on the principles of collective leadership and accountability to achieve the goals of the Freedom Charter, to meet the material needs of the people, of whom the workers and poor are the majority.”
Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi did not respond to questions the Pretoria News sent her and did not answer her phone.
However, closing the congress last month, Losi said the federation wanted the voice of the SACP to be “heard loud and clear”.
She said it would campaign with the SACP in accordance with its election modalities.
Pretoria News