Cosatu, a key ally of the struggling ANC, says it will be up to delegates to decide which party to support during the local government elections in 2026.
Another ally, the SACP, has decided to contest elections under its own banner as it has grown critical of the ANC’s track record in government and spoken out against its lackadaisical approach in dealing with service delivery, malfeasance, maladministration and systemic looting in the public service.
Cosatu and the SACP, as members of the ANC-led tripartite alliance, have traditionally supported the ANC during elections, using their grassroots structures to campaign for the party.
Cosatu leadership urges loyalty
During the campaign before the general election in 2024, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi cautioned workers against turning their backs on the ANC, saying the socioeconomic gains the party presided over would be reversed if it were voted out of power.
Once the report has been tabled the affiliates are going to discuss [it], but all we are saying is that whatever decision is taken, [it] must not be to the detriment of the unity of the alliance that has served South Africa so well for a long time
— Mike Shingange, Cosatu deputy president
ANC electoral support plunged to 40% in the 2024 polls and forced it to invite opposition parties to form a government of national unity.
Shingange highlights internal debate
Cosatu deputy president Mike Shingange spoke to Business Day on the sidelines of the four-day central committee meeting in Benoni, east of Johannesburg.
Asked if Cosatu would support the ANC or the SACP, or would allow its members to decide for themselves, he said: “That matter is going to be decided at this meeting. Once the report has been tabled the affiliates are going to discuss [it], but all we are saying is that whatever decision is taken, [it] must not be to the detriment of the unity of the alliance that has served South Africa so well for a long time.”
Unions push and pull within Cosatu
Shingange is also president of Cosatu’s largest affiliate, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu).
During the Cosatu national congress in September 2022, Nehawu, with the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, SA Municipal Workers Union and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), called on Cosatu to ditch the ANC and rally behind the SACP in the 2024 election, accusing the ANC of undermining workers and failing to implement tripartite alliance programmes.
The four unions account for more than 600,000 of Cosatu’s estimated membership of 1.6-million.
In December 2023, however, Nehawu made a U-turn and said it would use its structures to campaign for an “outright majority victory” for the ANC, arguing its new position was meant to defend “the gains of our revolution”. The NUM recently took a decision to support the SACP during the upcoming municipal elections.
Delegates to decide before 2026 elections
On Monday Shingange said whatever decision delegates to the meeting took, “we are going to be meticulous, as Cosatu, to ensure our discussions do not end up dividing us, because workers stand to lose a lot”.
“Whenever we decide which party we are supporting in the elections, or which leader, in which political party, it’s always a function of meetings such as this or congress. Fortunately, we have a congress coming up in September 2026, even before the [municipal] elections take place.”
In her keynote address to delegates on Monday, Losi appealed to the ANC and SACP to “not divide the alliance”.
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