Just over a decade after the last debilitating split in Cosatu, the labour federation faces new divisions when it has to choose between who to support at the polls — the ANC or the SACP.
Cosatu, which holds a central committee meeting in September, faces a quandary due to the SACP decision to contest the local government election in 2026 in its own right — the first time it will stand on its own ticket in anything other than a municipal by-election.
The turmoil within the labour federation over the issue was clear at the recent national congress of a key affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which was co-founded in 1982 by Cyril Ramaphosa.
While reports indicated that NUM was opting not to back the ANC in the local government election, the discussion and subsequent decision was more nuanced and complicated.
NUM had held a tense meeting of its political council in March, where it debated the SACP’s decision to contest elections. The meeting was heavily influenced by SACP leaders. Complicating matters, the meeting took place just three months before an elective conference at which the position of president was to be contested.
The political council agreed that NUM should support the SACP in its electoral foray, but by the time the elective conference was held in June, the mood had changed.
Insiders who participated in the closed session say some delegates stridently opposed backing the SACP at the polls and said it was unfair for the union to force them to choose one ally over the other. The FM understands that strong views were expressed about the SACP’s patchy representation across the country’s 257 municipalities.
SACP backers were surprised at the result, having assumed the union would simply endorse the decision of the March political council meeting.
“There were people within NUM who wanted to take a resolution that says we must vote for the SACP, but it was rejected by the congress,” a source who attended the session tells the FM. Others argued in favour of NUM throwing its weight behind the ANC, as it has done in the past.
In the end, the congress was heavily divided, with delegates unable to reach a conclusion.
By consensus, the decision was taken by people who were both pro-ANC and pro-SACP to say that we cannot divide the alliance, we cannot divide our members
— NUM source
“By consensus, the decision was taken by people who were both pro-ANC and pro-SACP to say that we cannot divide the alliance, we cannot divide our members,” the source says. “Our members must exercise their right to support or to vote for whoever they want when it comes to the local government election next year.”
That leaves the issue wide open. All Cosatu unions are set to go through the same process internally in the run-up to the central committee meeting next month.
The SACP, meanwhile, has doubled down on its resolve to contest elections on its own ticket. General secretary Solly Mapaila has repeatedly made it clear that there is no turning back for the party, whose ties to the ANC date back more than half a century.
To prove its intent, the SACP contested a by-election in Limpopo earlier this month, where it received all of 70 votes — or 1%. The limp result is not surprising, as it has had no electoral profile since it was unbanned in 1990. Still, it is pushing ahead.
The ANC appears resigned to the reality of the SACP as an electoral opponent instead of an ally.
We might have reached a stage where we are unable to persuade the SACP away from its decision to contest elections
— Fikile Mbalula
“We might have reached a stage where we are unable to persuade the SACP away from its decision to contest elections,” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told journalists after a meeting of the party’s national executive committee last week. “We believe as the ANC that this will weaken the national democratic revolution. It is important that the SACP understands the implications of this decision.”
The move will have far-reaching implications for the dual membership with the ANC that those in the SACP hold. This arrangement has given communists seats on top ANC structures at all levels as well as positions in all three tiers of government, handing them a disproportionate degree of influence.
The question is whether the ANC will end this dispensation, which would exclude SACP members from ANC meetings and remove them from government posts. Three cabinet ministers would be affected: Gwede Mantashe (mineral & petroleum resources), Blade Nzimande (science & technology) and Buti Manamela (higher education).
There are likely to be other casualties, such as deputy finance minister David Masondo. It is set to be a messy business, with individuals potentially having to choose between their membership of the ANC or the SACP. It will also require the ANC to change its constitution to exclude the SACP — the ties have historically run so deep that the SACP is the only other political formation to which ANC members may legitimately belong.
This is likely to change even before the SACP logo appears on the ballot in 2026.
Cosatu spokesperson Matthew Parks says the federation’s preference is for the alliance to remain intact, but to be reconfigured to address SACP concerns.
This is unlikely. A federation-wide decision similar to NUM’s — where Cosatu leaves it up to individuals to decide — is possible, but there are other complications. For instance, unions traditionally provide financial muscle and manpower for ANC campaigns. Will they still do so? Cosatu affiliates representing public sector staff have historically had political differences with those representing private sector workers — will this division deepen?
The new challenge to Cosatu unity follows the major split in 2014 — in which the SACP also had a role — when the federation expelled its then largest union, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, and the Numsa general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi.
Whatever happens, it seems clear the tripartite alliance, so important in the struggle and early democracy years but now increasingly fossilised, will not survive.
It has to be asked what influence the unions retain over ANC policy. Cosatu membership is declining, and now stands at less than 25% of formally employed people.
And it is possible that the SACP decision to contest elections will make no difference to support for the ANC while exposing the communists to the direct judgment of the voters — and hasten their party’s extinction.
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