The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is in the process of a dramatic “realignment”, which began to take shape at its national congress at Gallagher Estate last week. Only, the gathering — organised at an estimated cost of R30m including travel and accommodation — collapsed before the labour federation could deal with any of the crucial agenda items before it.
These included not just the federation’s position on the upcoming local government elections and its finances, but also an address by Gwede Mantashe, ANC national chair and former general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
He’s sanguine about events, telling the FM the collapse is “exaggerated”. What is taking place is a “realignment”, he says, stemming from a simmering battle between industrial and public sector unions.
“There was a fight on the balance of forces, which is a realignment of the federation,” Mantashe says. “Once you use the arrogance of numbers in the federation, you alienate others and you lose the plot … And I think that is what is happening.”
It may appear cryptic, but Mantashe’s description cuts to the heart of the events that unfolded this week. The issue goes back to 2014, when the union was dominated by blue-collar, private sector unions. At the time, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the NUM were the largest and second-largest unions in the federation. But their dominance wouldn’t go unchallenged for long: public sector unions such as the National Education, Health & Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) were rising forces.
In 2015, after the expulsion of Numsa, Cosatu’s character began to shift. After a period of being directed by a roughly even balance of industrial and public sector unions, power shifted to the likes of Nehawu, Sadtu and other public sector unions such as the Police & Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru).
Since then, these three — Nehawu, Sadtu and Popcru — have largely dictated the federation’s stance and direction on policy and leadership.
This dominance hasn’t sat well with unions outside the tent — hence last week’s move by the NUM and six other unions, both industrial and public sector, to reassert their influence, insiders aligned to this group tell the FM.
Battle of the slates
The tensions are apparent in the competing electoral leadership slates. Ahead of the gathering, Nehawu, Sadtu and Popcru had agreed on a slate that would see incumbent president Zingiswa Losi shifted to the role of general secretary; Sadtu president Mabutho Cele being elevated as her successor; Nehawu treasurer Kgomotso Makhupola replacing long-standing Cosatu treasurer Freda Oosthuysen; Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers Union president Susan Khumalo becoming first deputy president; and Western Cape Cosatu secretary Malvern de Bruyn named as deputy general secretary.
This overhaul of the top leadership would kick out several established Cosatu leaders, including first deputy president Mike Shingange — a member of Nehawu — and split the top three posts between Nehawu, Sadtu and Popcru.
This slate was likely to have won the day, given that the three unions’ delegations constitute a majority.
But this wasn’t the only slate in contention. An alternative put forward by the NUM-led group proposed Shingange as president; NUM chair Duncan Luvuno as first deputy president; Mbali Blose, a leader of the South African Commercial, Catering & Allied Workers Union, as second deputy president; and Mike Manganyi of the finance union, Sasbo, who is also Cosatu’s Limpopo treasurer, as treasurer-general. This slate would keep incumbent Cosatu general secretary Solly Phetoe and his deputy Gerald Twala where they are.
“For us it doesn’t matter where you are coming from if you have the capacity to lead … We are fighting for the federation to be led by leaders with good capacity and the capability also to unite members,” says a delegate aligned to the NUM.
“We identified Mike Shingange even though he comes from Nehawu; we don’t want to divide unions along any lines.”
Only, with the dominant unions’ slate looking to be a shoo-in, the NUM and the six other affiliates strategically collapsed the conference to give themselves more time to persuade delegates to back their slate instead.
The Shingange factor
Shingange was a central figure in the goings-on. Two days before the congress commenced, he was suspended by Nehawu; the union had asked him not to sign the nomination form for the post of president because it had already put forward a candidate for the position of treasurer, but Shingange refused.
The congress spent an inordinate amount of time discussing Shingange’s eligibility to stand for the presidency. It subsequently broke into a special meeting of the central executive committee, and Shingange approached the labour court.
After all-night discussions between leaders on September 14 and a court judgment in Shingange’s favour, it was agreed that Shingange could stand for the post of president.
But, even with their candidate admitted to the race, the NUM grouping was aware that it did not have the numbers to win — so it used a clause in Cosatu’s constitution to collapse the congress by withholding its unions’ credentials (an attendance register of each union delegation).
As Phetoe explains it, two-thirds of affiliates present must submit their credentials for the congress to be quorate. With seven of 16 affiliates withholding their credentials, the congress could not proceed.
“The truth of the matter is that the numbers were not in their favour,” says an insider from Nehawu. “The real issue here is that the NUM pushed the other unions because they felt they were going to lose those who were serving. For example, NUM was going to lose the deputy president who was serving, and the South African Municipal Workers Union was going to lose the current deputy general secretary.”
It all boiled down to personal ambition, the source says, adding that the NUM is “leaderless” and “dead”.
Amid the chaos, a special leaders’ meeting will be held this week and the congress will be reconvened in a month’s time. The two groups will use that breathing room to persuade individual delegates to back their slates.
Further afield
The race for control of the federation takes place at a crucial juncture for both the alliance and the country. In its political report, Cosatu admits to the failure of the ANC to grow the economy and deal with the unemployment crisis, and points to the collapse of service delivery across the country.
At the same time, the ANC and the other tripartite alliance member, the SACP, are set to fight one another at the ballot box in what is expected to be the most hotly contested local government election since 1994. It was clear at the congress that the ANC-SACP matter was the elephant in the room.
While Shingange is viewed as close to the SACP, his own union, Nehawu, has resolved to support it in the upcoming election. But the NUM, which backs Shingange, has refused to choose the SACP over the ANC, arguing that it continues to have many members who are ANC supporters.
And Sadtu, whose first deputy president, Cele, is vying to take over the Cosatu presidency from Losi, has resolved to back the ANC in the election.
Who the federation ultimately backs will be decided only once its leadership tussle is settled. For now, both Cosatu factions can be accused of using the “arrogance of numbers” to attempt to bully other affiliates. Nehawu, Popcru and Sadtu sought to impose their preferred candidates on the federation’s 16 affiliates, and the NUM and the six other affiliates collapsed the congress using the two-thirds rule.
Whether the NUM and the six smaller affiliates succeed in capturing the federation depends on their ability to sway individual delegates from the competing unions. It’s a long shot.
Marrian is a political analyst at the Bureau for Economic Research
