ANC has survived a lot worse threats than Magashule, says Cosatu president

A possible ANC split due to divisions over the step aside resolution should not be feared because individuals come and go.

That’s the assertion of Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi.

Her sentiments come amid infighting within the ruling party as suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule heads for the courts to declare the resolution, implemented by the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), unconstitutional.

Experts have warned the move could cripple the party in the form of a breakaway, ahead of local government elections later this year. However, Losi says the ANC is bigger than individuals.

“The ANC has gone through a number of rough patches. Breakaways have happened but it still remains. There are many organisations or political parties in this country, some in parliament, some never made it, that have come out of the ANC, but it still remains and will continue to.

“So we have an ANC that must be defended, that we as Cosatu, are in alliance with and not individuals within it,” she told Sunday Times Daily.

The majority of our people are still languishing in poverty, and corruption is one of the most painful things we have seen post-democracy.

—  Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi

The resolution implemented by the ANC was important in order for the party to redeem itself. Losi says it had been expected there would be casualties in the adoption of the resolution.

“When the ANC took that resolution, it took it because it had noted what had gone wrong. It believed where the organisation should be, and therefore resolved to get there. So it understood that there would be victims along the way, because it would have not taken that decision if it had not identified individuals within the organisation that are putting its name into disrepute.

“It looked at itself and decided it was the time for cleansing to become the ANC that was intended in 1913 ...”

Losi said the federation had deliberated on the changes happening within the ruling party and how those would affect its constituency and resolved change was necessary.

“Change is not easy. Change means you move from what you are accustomed to, to what you are not familiar with. Whenever you move towards change there will be consequences, good or bad.

“So when the ANC implements its conference resolution to members of the ANC, that shouldn’t be seen as a move that will create division. It cannot be, because, if you say that, it means that you are not looking at the organisation as a whole. You are now individualising conference resolutions.”

Losi, who also a member of the ANC’s NEC, said the resolution was adopted before the election of leaders. Hence it was incorrect to suggest they had been targeting certain leaders.

“It therefore cannot be correct that when a resolution is implemented, now all of a sudden, it’s targeting a particular leader,” she said.

Losi praised the ruling party in forging ahead with implementing the resolution despite uncertainty.

“We want an ANC that is decisive and we are happy with what we are seeing, and that’s why we said Luthuli House must sort itself out, because the patience of this country’s people, the patience of the workers, is not unlimited.”

Commenting on the scourge of corruption in SA, Losi said it had been one of the most disturbing occurrences since the apartheid government.

“The majority of our people are still languishing in poverty, and corruption is one of the most painful things we have seen post-democracy. It steals livelihoods and decent living standards from our people. We are not saying this didn’t exist before, but we voted for a democratic government led by the ANC.”

Despite this, Losi said the federation would still back the ruling party in the upcoming elections. This, after the party had seen a slight decline in past elections.

“The ANC does not lose elections because people voted for the opposition. It’s just that people stay away from the polling station because they are disappointed in the ANC and have no trust in the opposition.

“The ANC is still the hope for us, the working class. The achievements that we’ve seen post-1994 are things that have managed to change the lives of our people, but we are not where we wanted to be.”