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Cosatu calls for alliance summit

• Federation wants to discuss what went wrong after governing party’s support fell below 50%

Luyolo Mkentane mkentanel@businesslive.co.za

Cosatu, which campaigned for the ANC ahead of the recent municipal elections, is calling for an urgent alliance summit to discuss what went wrong after the governing party’s support fell below 50% for the first time. It also wants the summit to review the coalition talks that resulted in some metros and local councils falling into opposition hands.

Cosatu, which campaigned relentlessly for the ANC ahead of the recent municipal elections, is calling for an urgent alliance summit to discuss what went wrong after the governing party’s support fell below the 50% mark for the first time.

It also wants the summit to review the coalition talks that resulted in some major metros and local councils falling into opposition hands.

The local government elections on November 1 resulted in a number of hung town councils and crucial metros as no political party garnered enough votes to govern outright.

In a shock move, EFF and ActionSA councillors voted with the DA in what they described as a move to keep the ANC out of the Gauteng metros of Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. ANC councillor Mxolisi Kaunda narrowly won the mayoral chain in eThekwini on Wednesday, after a two-horse race with DA councillor Nicole Graham.

Addressing journalists on Thursday after its central executive committee (CEC) meeting from Monday to Wednesday, Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said the election results were “deeply disappointing”. The ANC mustered national voter support of only 45.6%, followed by the DA with 21.66%, and the EFF with 10.31%.

“The federation plans to convene a political commission to do a comprehensive analysis of the local government elections outcome and their impact on the national democratic revolution and the alliance,” he said.

Cosatu and the SACP are the alliance partners of the ANC.

“We also intend to push for an urgent alliance summit to do a thorough and honest postmortem analysis of the elections and outcome of the coalition talks,” Ntshalintshali said.

Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said the metro councils under the DA could be shortlived because “coalitions have shown us that they do not work. Your coalition partners can vote against you and you may be out of power tomorrow.”

She questioned which manifesto would be implemented in the metros the DA has won, saying: “If you want a government that you can hold to account, it’s not a government of coalition, it’s a government of majority.

HOLLOWING OUT

The ANC needs a “decisive victory” in the national election in 2024 “so that we can have a government we can hold accountable, based on the contract it has with the people of SA”.

The CEC meeting expressed concern about the hollowing out of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), saying the government needs to work with labour and business to develop clear strategies to get them back on a sustainable trajectory. Cosatu also spoke out against corruption and wasteful expenditure, budget cuts, and retrenchments.

The indefinite strike by the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) at struggling retail giant Massmart received the backing of Cosatu.

Saccawu, which claims to have about 20,000 of Massmart’s 45,000-strong workforce, embarked on an indefinite strike from Friday in support of its demand for a R500 increase across the board, rejecting management’s proposal of R320.

The union, which has also called for a consumer boycott of the group’s 413 stores, is disputing alleged unilateral restructuring and changes to terms and conditions of employment affecting the group’s customer relation officers.

Ntshalintshali said: “We don’t believe Massmart is broke. Massmart has never said they are broke. We think Massmart can afford the union’s demands.”

He said the Massmart employees worked very hard during the hard lockdown, even risking contraction of the deadly coronavirus.

Massmart, owned by Walmart, the largest company in the world by revenue, has been struggling to shake off the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying lockdown restrictions. These resulted in losses of billions of rand due to bans on alcohol sales imposed by the government.

The July unrest in KwaZuluNatal and Gauteng brought more setbacks for the group — which is in the middle of a turnaround attempt to fix years of underperformance when two of its warehouses were looted and one razed, while 43 stores were damaged.

The looting, arson and store closures during the civil unrest cost the owner of Game, Makro and Builders Warehouse R2.5bn, and it also had to meet a R650m insurance shortfall.

Massmart has said there was low support for the strike among its workers.

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2021-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

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