Business Day *Leftists will take control of ANC — Sadtu* *Sibongakonke Shoba, Business Day, Johannesburg, 7 October 2010*THE South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), an affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), yesterday vowed that the left wing in the tripartite alliance would “come in numbers” to take control of the African National Congress (ANC) in 2012.
It said this as campaigning for positions in the ANC ahead of the 2012 elective conference gains pace despite the ANC leadership’s attempts to suppress the succession debate as being premature.
Already the ANC Youth League is campaigning for the removal of ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe at the next elective conference, a move seen by the left as an attempt to sideline left-leaning members of the tripartite alliance. Mr Mantashe is also chairman of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and a former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, a Cosatu affiliate.
Sadtu president Thobile Ntola told delegates at the union’s congress in Boksburg yesterday that even if Mr Mantashe could be removed, the left would take over the ANC in 2012. “You can remove Mantashe (but) we will come in numbers and take everything,” he said.
Sadtu’s threat is a warning to antileft members in the ANC that Cosatu and the SACP are capable of mobilising for their members to be elected to top ANC positions. Although the SACP has fewer members than the ANC, Cosatu has more than a million — more than the ANC’s membership — and some of them are active in ANC structures.
Mr Ntola said the tripartite alliance must not be used only for campaigning, but must co-govern with the ANC.
He accused the government of comprising of “nationalists” whose main concern was with classifying and declassifying information. “They are not worried about poverty … they are worried about hiding information about tenders … they are worried about the fact that the media will expose all these things, so they must be gagged.”
Speaking at the same gathering, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said although the federation was happy with the outcome of the ANC’s national general council (NGC) meeting, it was not satisfied with the manner in which the question of the alliance being the strategic political centre of power was addressed. ANC leaders, including President Jacob Zuma , have insisted that the ANC is the strategic centre of power.
“It is mischievous and contradictory to argue that the alliance, which has the ANC at the helm, is not in itself a strategic centre of power,” said Mr Vavi.
The ANC’s alliance partners — Cosatu and the SACP — want the alliance rather than the ANC to take crucial decisions.
Regarding the three-week public sector strike, Mr Vavi called for the creation of a single public service union: “The overriding lesson from this strike is the urgent need to create a single public sector union that will have specialised units for all the professions that exist in the public service.”
Meanwhile, SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande, in a separate statement released yesterday, said the party was also happy with the outcome of the NGC and how it emphasised the importance of the alliance. “The alliance was formed out of struggle, and out of the shared vision … It is based on the understanding that each alliance component enjoys political independence from the other, but also acknowledges the central role of the ANC as the leader of the alliance and the political centre.”
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