Will Cosatu's threats to part ways with the ANC, if corruption is not dealt with, be taken seriously by the ANC or is this relationship doomed? asks Ralph Mathekga.
Trade union federation Cosatu has joined the fray and voiced its concerns about the ongoing looting of Covid-19 funds by ANC cadres and their associates.
A member of the tripartite alliance together with the ANC and the SACP, Cosatu joined forces with majority of South Africans who are fed up with the daily diet of ANC impropriety.
Cosatu has taken aim at President Cyril Ramaphosa, daring him to do something that is just uncharacteristic of our ever-diplomatic president: deal with corruption or the federation will part ways with the party. It has also had enough of the president's "My fellow South Africans" hymn.
It must be a case of deja vu for Cosatu, having barely survived the President Jacob Zuma years which left the federation bruised and divided.
Cosatu was thrown a lifeline by Ramaphosa who promised all things not Zuma. Alas, the honeymoon is over and it seems more of the same as Cosatu holds on to whatever remains of its legitimacy after the difficult years.
Breaking ranks
Recently, things took a turn for the worse for the president and his relationship with Cosatu when the federation broke ranks and confronted the government, asking it to open the economy during the lockdown so that people could start working again.
This was because the government could not sustain supporting people through social security.
You can imagine what it took for a left-leaning trade union federation to arrive at the conclusion that the government should allow people to go out and fend for themselves in the economy instead of relying on social security.
The federation resorted to the same tactics it used during the Zuma administration, threatening ANC leaders to get their house in order, or else… I do not know if Cosatu has further threats in store for the party.
The issue though, is whatever threats the federation can think of, the ANC no longer scares easily, or doesn't appear to scare at all. The ANC just lives in its own world; a world where common sense and common decency are in short supply.
Cosatu finds itself in a difficult situation whereby the theft of Covid-19 funds also directly impacts on the government's capability to prepare a safer working environment, such as at schools where some members of trade unions affiliated to Cosatu are employed.
It previously cozied up to the ruling ANC, failing to speak out when government didn't adhere to minimum standards in terms of facilities in schools. Cosatu rather focused on its own interests and looked the other way.
However, the government's failure to clamp down on corruption in relation to Covid-19 funds has dire implications on workers, and Cosatu is now standing up to voice its concerns that the president ought to go for some dental work to replace his "rubber teeth" with a set of teeth with real bite.
For President Ramaphosa, who is battling public backlash over the misuse of Covid-19 funds, what Cosatu is saying is not something to smile at. The federation is exposing Ramaphosa for selling us a ruse.
Serious headwinds
Come to think of it, Ramaphosa ran into problems much earlier than Zuma did.
Zuma‘s deeds became clearer during his second term in office when he tried to incorporate the country under his name as a sole shareholder. Ramaphosa, however, has run into serious headwinds much earlier, even before reaching the middle of his first term. Corruption is getting worse as deals are shared equitably across factions in the ANC.
Trying to clean up the mess is a headache for the president and his explanation that this is where he finds himself because he inherited the problem no longer holds.
He will have to clean the mess up. The president promised to deal with corruption.
He did not say he will deal with it only when the consequences are less adverse on his political career. That is calculating and will result in the president losing allies, such as Cosatu, which is trying to stand on principle instead of political expediency.
- Dr Ralph Mathekga is a political analyst and the author of When Zuma Goes and Ramaphosa's Turn.
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