Cosatu urges ANC to reflect on government’s ‘growing inability’ to fix the country

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has urged the African National Congress (ANC) to reflect on government’s “growing inability” to fix the problems of the country when it resumes its 55th national conference on Thursday.

The governing party failed to adopt resolutions at the Nasrec conference last month with delegates expected to reconvene virtually to conclude the unfinished business.

Cosatu said it is also looking forward to the ANC’s 111th birthday celebrations at the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium in Mangaung in the Free State on Sunday.

ANC problems

The trade union federation said the ANC elective conference showed that the party’s problems are “deep-rooted.”

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said workers expect a solid political and economic programme to kickstart the economy and accelerate economic transformation.

“We hope that the ANC will reflect on its government’s growing inability to grow the economy, fix electricity load shedding and reduce unemployment and poverty,” said Pamla.

The ANC is increasingly presiding over a nation that is politically unstable, that experiences periodical rioting, suffers from rampant crime levels and is hungrier with a high disease burden.”

Uniting South Africans

Pamla said the ANC also needs to be worried by its failure to mobilise and unite South Africans, particularly the black majority, around the “project of non-racialism, non-sexism, and nation-building”.

“The 2021 local government elections results showed that our movement is becoming more and more African, losing support of Indians, coloureds and progressively-minded white South Africans. There is an urgent need to defeat and eradicate tribal and racial divisions that deny us our common identity as South Africans.”

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Corruption

Pamla added that Cosatu also expects to see various measures being introduced to “crackdown on corruption and defeat the predatory elite”.

“The federation remains concerned about tenderpreneurs using access to the state to drive their accumulation agenda.”

“The NEC needs to decisively deal with the escalation of ill-discipline and… needs to tackle, arrest, and reverse the negative tendencies that have eroded and threaten to erode the political integrity and moral standing of the ANC in the eyes of society,“ he said.

Urgency

Pamla urged the ANC to resolve these issues urgently.

“Failure to appreciate these immediate dangers could open the prospect of defeat of our revolution. This is because we are faced with a crisis which must be dealt with without delay,” said Pamla.

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