Pretoria - Cosatu has urged the ANC to retain its step-aside policy for those criminally charged in courts of law or face the prospect of losing the national elections in 2024.
The trade union federation has also called on the ANC to support the criminal prosecution of its members, including national leaders implicated in state capture.
These drastic steps are contained in Cosatu’s political and organisational report, expected to be tabled at its national elective congress to be held at the Gallagher Convention Centre on September 26-29.
Cosatu’s 14th national congress documents were released just as the ANC was starting to allow its branches to nominate leaders to occupy positions in the party’s top six and 80-member national executive committee in December at its elective conference.
Cosatu’s documents were highly critical of policy documents presented at the ANC’s national policy conference, especially the party’s alleged failure to acknowledge that it might lose its majority in the national elections in 2024.
In one of the critiques, Cosatu said the ANC’s organisational renewal report was silent on what was to be done to address the existential crises bedevilling the party.
“It acknowledges lumpen elements that have put the ANC in real danger of collapse but failed to acknowledge that in fact there are rampant criminals in all levels of the ANC, including its leadership. It is silent on the fact that the only way forward is for these elements to be expelled and prosecuted by law enforcement agencies,” Cosatu said.
Cosatu’s call came as the ANC had already asked its members implicated in state capture to voluntarily appear before the party’s Integrity Commission but made no recommendation of criminal prosecution of them.
In Cosatu’s view, “the rights of those few individuals accused of serious crimes cannot outweigh the anger of society and workers who have seen the state be run into the ground, workers sent home unpaid and retrenched, state-owned entities collapsed because some leaders have chosen to engage in industrial corruption”.
“The resolution should be retained at Congress, including enshrined in the ANC’s constitution. Scrapping it will send a damning message to workers that we are tolerant of corruption and criminality.
“This would come back to haunt us in the 2024 elections,” Cosatu said.
Cosatu is adamant that the (2017) Nasrec Resolution requiring leaders and public representatives of the ANC to step aside once they have been charged for a criminal offence be debated at the ANC’s national elective conference in December. According to Cosatu, there were attempts to scuttle it at the party’s national policy conference last month.
“Only one province called for it to be scrapped, while the majority called for it to be retained and strengthened.
“But for it to be sustained, the judicial processes must be accelerated and not subjected to endless delays,” Cosatu wrote.
The trade union federation also said the ANC’s organisational renewal was silent on how organisational divisions and factions had spilt over into the state at the
expense of service delivery and the need to professionalise the public service and insulate it from such interferences.
The ANC’s discussion on the balance of forces and transformation agenda was also avoiding discussing the real danger of losing the 2024 elections, Cosatu said, not only in the Western Cape but also Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape and possibly nationally.
The document also does not assess the possibility of national and provincial coalitions, could the ANC muster these, and how would they impact upon its ability to govern, it said.
Cosatu wants the ANC to do a much deeper introspection of the impact of state capture and corruption; the ANC and the government’s capacity to implement ANC policies and elections manifestos; a frank acceptance of the extent of corruption and factionalism within the ANC and the decisive action needed to uproot it; an acknowledgement of the growing gap between leadership and society; as well as an acknowledgement of the extent of alienation of workers, supporters and society from the ANC, and the real chance that “we may lose the 2024 elections”.
It also wants a sober reflection on whether and how the ANC could form a coalition nationally and in affected provinces in 2024; reflection on the real damage that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was causing the South African economy and workers; as well as all-time high oil and fuel prices and the spillover into inflation and repo rate hikes.
Pretoria News