Alliance unity a charade?

OK. I didn't just say it, the Institute of Race Relations picked up on the tensions within the Tripartite Alliance as well.

Not everyone might agree with the way Cosatu are calling on wildcat strikes of late. Better off without them, you could say. But why the huge anger within Cosatu?

Does Cosatu have to be dumped totally by the ANC? More importantly, would it be wise for the ANC to dump Cosatu?

Mr Cronje of the Institute of Race Relations argues that the ANC does not need Cosatu because "only" around half of " 3,5 million employees" are Cosatu members.

I would call Mr Cronje slightly glib to discount such a figure as negligible. 1,75 million Cosatu members translates into around 17,5 million dependants.

And that's where the rub lies. The ANC was brought into power on the shoulders of trade unions like NUM with leaders like Cyril Ramaphosa where influence wasn't always that immediately transparent.

I agree with Ms Duarte that it's a strategic alliance you can't dump from one day to the next. (To be followed up ...)

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The African National Congress (ANC) was in a strong position to dump its alliance partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), the South African Institute of Race Relations said yesterday.

In an article written by deputy CEO Frans Cronje, it argues that trade union membership amounted to only a small portion of the ANC’s voter support base and that the party stood to lose very little support in dropping its alliance partners.

Cronje said trade union membership was only 3,5-million employees, of which only half were aligned to Cosatu.

“Arguably Helen Zille’s Democratic Alliance has more support than the alliance partners,” said Cronje in an interview yesterday.

Cronje said the unity displayed by the alliance was “a charade” and was not the coming together of minds as was intended in Polokwane. He said it was clear there were already huge cracks in the alliance, evident in comments made by senior ANC members such as National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel , who labelled big business as cowards for not standing up to union threats of widespread strikes.

Cronje said the leadership split after 2007 was not as much about Mbeki but rather a split between the ANC and it alliance partners.

Cronje argues that once the first few Mbeki supporters had crossed to the Zuma camp the dam broke and Jacob Zuma was elected president of the ANC by a majority of six to four.

“On assuming power, Zuma knew that one of his first priorities had to be the weakening of the same ‘leftist’ power base that had carried him to victory in Polokwane. Being a considerably more adept strategist than Mr Mbeki ever was, he set about appointing his Cabinet.

“Mr Zuma had, in addition to the ‘first Cabinet’ tasked with running SA appointed a ‘second Cabinet’ of leftists and trade union leaders. These were given duties and responsibilities that amounted to a selection of open- ended planning portfolios or poisoned chalices. The result was to significantly weaken the partners as these, now jointly with the government, would carry responsibility for the consequences of the policy they made.”

ANC spokeswoman Jessie Duarte said the ANC would not dump its partners. “There is no possibility of cracks because we have robust relations (with our partners). They are seeking cracks where there are none.” Commenting on Cosatu’s membership, Duarte said it was not about numbers but a strategic alliance.