Serious moves are afoot to establish a popular left-leaning movement involving Cosatu affiliates and the SACP.
The plan, if it comes to fruition, will see the envisaged popular left movement contesting the 2024 national general elections independent of its senior alliance partner, the ANC.
However, the federation affiliates await a clearer clarion call from the leading principals – the SACP – before they can take the plunge to establish the long-awaited popular left movement, with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) decrying the slow pace at which the plan has been unfolding.
“We cannot take a decision on their behalf. The SACP must be bold and take a clearer decision to contest elections. Workers are waiting on them, and we will join them,” said NUM general secretary, William Mabapa.
The union held its two-day special national congress this week, which was addressed by the ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile, standing in for President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had “other pressing commitments”.
Mabapa said the question of filing “divorce papers” and joining the SACP was high on the agenda. NUM is one of the key Cosatu affiliates, with a membership exceeding 160 000.
“Although we deliberated on the matter extensively, our members felt we cannot take a resolution just yet. For now, unless the SACP tells us otherwise, we will work towards configuring the alliance,” he said.
During the SACP’s July 2022 national congress, key ANC alliance partners resolved to form a powerful left socialist movement “as a way of realising the ideals of socialism” and of abandoning neoliberal agenda and rolling back macroeconomic framework”.
The left-leaning union leadership has always toyed with the idea of distancing itself from anti-capitalism sentiments finding expression in the way the government conducts its affairs.
Cosatu affiliates willing to support the SACP programmes include the NUM, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union and the Prisons and Civil Rights Union
However, at the Cosatu congress last year, other affiliates, including the South African Democratic Teachers Union, were of a different mind, and rejected the proposal.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said affiliates had been given a mandate to consult their members and to form a consolidated view to be submitted to the federation for consideration.
“The process is ongoing because the central executive committee argued we should consult workers on the ground.”
The Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, formed by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, had a dismal showing at the 2019 polls.
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