The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has made a significant declaration reaffirming its non-partisan role within the tripartite alliance ahead of the elections with ANC and SACP contesting elections independently from each other.
Ahead of what can be termed the most brutal local government elections, with the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) not seeing eye to eye, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has given itself the task of convening a meeting between the three formidable alliance partners.
This comes as the labour federation has reaffirmed its role as a non-partisan partner within the tripartite alliance, a decision underscored during a recent press briefing following its Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting on August 25, following the establishment of an Alliance Political Council to oversee discussions among the three alliance partners.
"Even with the SACP contesting elections, and Cosatu respects the decision of the SACP to contest elections, that is why the Central Committee of Cosatu, the 8th Central Committee, directed us to convene the Alliance Political Council so that our political alliance partners can find modalities on how they are going to contest elections in a manner that they will... So, the SACP will contest elections, the ANC will contest elections, what are the modalities of doing that," said Cosatu's first deputy president Mike Shingange during a press briefing on Saturday.
