Johannesburg – The debate on whether Cosatu should continue its support of the ANC’s local government election campaign has deeply divided the federation’s affiliates, with the organisation’s special meeting descending into bitter personal attacks this week.
Sunday World has established that Cosatu’s special central executive (CEC) meeting on Wednesday was a fierce battlefield at which affiliates clashed over continued electoral support for the ANC.
The federation’s biggest affliate, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and the Communications Workers Union failed in their bid to convince other affiliates to dump the ANC when the country goes to local polls by November.
Last month, Sunday World reported that Nehawu, a crucial campaigner of the ANC with over 277 000 members, decided to cut millions in electoral support in a drastic move meant to demonstrate disappointment in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration.
Nehawu faced stiff opposition from affiliates such as the SA Democratic Teachers Union and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, showing the deep divisions in Cosatu’s public sector unions, the biggest in size, following job losses in the private sector over the years and the cutting of ties with the National Union of Metalworkers of SA.
Nehawu’s leadership, led by the union’s general secretary Zola Saphetha, expressed anger over the government’s decision to renege on the 2018 wage agreement and the subsequent three year salary increase freeze.
They further explained why they would not be printing T-shirts, hiring sound systems and deploying their leaders to any area to campaign for the ANC.
Saphetha told Sunday World yesterday that although it aligned itself with the Cosatu decision to continue electoral support for the governing party, as an independent affiliate the trade union would still not use its resources to campaign for the governing party.
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