Cosatu has called for unity in the tripartite alliance ahead of the local government elections in November this year following the SA Communist Party's decision to contest the polls independently.
Image: File.
Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi has called for unity of the Tripartite Alliance as its warring traditional allies, the ANC and the SA Communist Party (SACP), are set to go head to head at the municipal polls.
Addressing the federation’s national May Day rally at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, Limpopo, on Friday, Losi said the elections scheduled for November should not divide the alliance.
Losi stated that the alliance must always remain united, as its components are allies rather than opponents. She added that the alliance partners must ensure that it emerges victorious at the local government elections and not allow differences to divide the organisations.
Limpopo Premier and ANC Provincial Chairperson Dr Phophi Ramathuba said the party’s recently elected provincial executive committee has SACP cadres.
She admitted that the SACP’s decision to contest the elections independently has strained its relationship with the ANC, but the focus should be on ensuring that the ANC continues to lead the alliance.
“People of Limpopo believe in the alliance,” Ramathuba said.
In its May Day message, the SACP stated that it remained committed to the alliance as the most capable and historically proven political and organisational mechanism to unite South Africans and organise them in pursuit of revolutionary goals.
“The SACP continues to affirm its commitment to dual membership. Any threat against dual membership places the alliance in great peril,” it warned.
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula last week announced that ANC members holding dual ANC-SACP membership had been given 10 days to decide which organisation they hold allegiance to before the November 2026 municipal polls.
According to the SACP, even as the alliance faces the changes related to its approach to elections and state power, the alliance must remain steadfast on the promise of its founding.
“The SACP sees no contradiction between the SACP contesting elections directly and the continuation of the Alliance. These are not mutually exclusive,” the party said.
The alliance and its mode of operation must be aligned to the revolutionary demands of the day, which the SACP said means its analytical framework must be on par with the objective conditions of the motive forces of the revolution it seeks to accomplish.
“This also means its organisational approach must be consistent with the revolutionary requirements as objectively manifested at a given time.
“The SACP, for more than a decade, has consistently called for the reconfiguration of the alliance,” the organisation added.
It is insisting on the alliance’s reconfiguration, which it said remains necessary and relevant at this time, as it was when it was first conceived.
“The reconfiguration must take into account the changes in the political ecosystem and organisational formation in the present time.
“The reconfiguration means the reframing of the decision-making, the coordination of policy processes and implementation, the restructuring of the accountability processes between the organisations and between government structures, and the implementation of other alliance-related decisions,” the SACP maintained.
It also said the alliance can only make significant progress when it seriously implements the principle of reconfiguration on Cosatu and the working-class movement.