Ramaphosa said this on the sidelines of Cosatu’s 40th anniversary rally at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto
President Cyril Ramaphosa admitted that both the ANC and trade union federation Cosatu are facing many challenges, but said this cannot diminish their achievements over many decades.
The president said this at Cosatu’s 40th anniversary rally at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto on Saturday.
ANC and Cosatu need to ‘rebuild and renew’ themselves
He said both the ANC and the Cosatu needs to use their weaknesses to renew themselves.
“What we are going through now is a dip, and all organisations go through challenges and moments of weakness, but it is out of those weaknesses that they are able to renew themselves and rebuild themselves,” said Ramaphosa.
On the sidelines of Cosatu’s rally, with the large number of empty seats being conspicuous, he referred to the diminishing membership of Cosatu.
“As I said in my speech, Cosatu still exists.
“It may not have two million members today, but the backbone of Cosatu is still there, as the backbone of the ANC is still there.
“So what we can do now is to rebuild, is to renew ourselves so that we go back to our glory days.”
Faltering alliance
Cosatu’s 40th anniversary comes as the tripartite alliance – between Cosatu, the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) – has shown cracks.
Ramaphosa, however, said the ANC is working to strengthen the alliance.
“The ANC is determined to strengthen the relationship between the workers of our country and the ANC. It is also determined to strengthen the strategic alliance that it has with Cosatu, with SANCO, and the SACP, despite the many challenges that we must face. We must therefore close ranks and unite and advance the national democratic revolution.”
Unable to attract young South Africans
NUM president Phillip Vilakazi touched on the issue of Cosatu being unable to attract young South Africans to the labour movement.
“The only thing that young people see is pompous people who are using public money to show off,” he said.
“And the voters have grown young; we need not to talk about history a lot.”
He said Cosatu needs to be innovative to attract young members.
“These are digital people; they live in a space of technology.”
Vilakazi, however, also said that young South Africans need to realise that work is required to improve their circumstances.
“The liberation movement has slept on duty by leaving the political mass education, because people think that everything is for free. There is no free lunch.”
‘Alliance is not functioning well’
SACP general-secretary Solly Mapaila used the anniversary to complain that the tripartite alliance is working well.
“The alliance is not functioning well at the moment. [There are] lots of meetings but no agreements on fundamentals, particularly on how to build an economy that is inclusive, an economy that will serve the people of this country, instead of this neo-liberal economy that we have been given in the name of inclusivity that continues to perpetuate the oppression and exploitation of the workers.”
Despite this, Cosatu President Zingiswa Losi called for more unity within the tripartite alliance.
“The ANC, the SACP, SANCO, Cosatu, let’s go and agree on the modalities of powers and alliances. We shall rise united to win the local government elections that are coming. We have to speak to the unity of the alliance. We must not allow ourselves to hand over what we fought so hard for,” said Losi.
